
Class j^iii^ 

Book 

Copyright \° 



COFTCIGHT DEPosrr. 



X . 







View of Athens 



SHAKESPEARE'S 



TRAGEDY OF 



TIMON OF ATHENS 



EDITED, WITH NOTES 
BY 

WILLIAM J. ROLFE, Litt.D. 

FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK ■ : . CINCINNATI ■ : . CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

FEB 15 1906 

Copyright Entry 
t CLASS & XXc, No. 

/a & i * + 

' COPY B, 



TTUm 
- — oftpoQri&na 



Copyright, 1882 and 1898, by 
HARPER & BROTHERS. 

Copyright, 1906, by 
WILLIAM J. ROLFE. 

TIMON OF ATHENS. 



W. P. I 



PREFACE 

Timon of Athens, as the critics now almost unani- 
mously agree, is Shakespeare's only in part, and is 
little read except by critical students. The corruptions 
in the original text are numerous, and some of them 
peculiarly perplexing; and the modern editors vary 
much in their attempts to correct and explain them. 
I have recorded and discussed such of these variations 
as are likely to be of interest to readers and students. 
In other respects the introduction and notes conform 
to the general plan of the present edition. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction to Timon of Athens 
The History of the Play . 
The Sources of the Plot . 
General Comments on the Play 

Timon of Athens 
Act I 
Act II 
Act III 
Act IV 
ActV 

Notes . 

Appendix : 

The Stage History of the Play 
The Character of Timon 
Shakespeare's Part of the Play 
The Time-Analysis of the Play 
List of Characters in the Play 



9 

9 

*5 

16 

35 
37 
6i 

74 

98 

124 

143 



224 
227 
229 
230 
230 



Index of Words and Phrases Explained 



233 




:.-.. Athens 




*\k s^-vsx- 






The Parthenon 



INTRODUCTION TO TIMON OF ATHENS 



The History of the Play 

Titnon of Athens was first printed in 1623, having 
been entered upon the Stationers ' Registers in Novem- 
ber of that year, by the publishers of the folio, among 
the plays " not formerly entered to other men." 

The critics are almost unanimous in deciding that 
the play is Shakespeare's only in part, but they do not 
agree as to its probable history. Knight, the Cam- 
bridge editors, and a few others believe that the drama- 
tist revamped an earlier play, parts of which, for some 
reason or other, he retained with slight alteration. On 

9 



io Timon of Athens 

the other hand. Verplanck. 1 and the majority of recent 
editors, including Gollancz and Herford. the latest, 
regard it as an original work of Shakespeare's, which 
he laid aside or left unfinished, and which was com- 
pleted by an inferior writer. There are difficulties in 
either theory, but the latter is by far the more probable. 

There is little difficulty in separating Shakespeare's 
part of Timon from that of the other writer, and there 
would be less or none were it not that in some scenes 
we have the work of the two hands mixed, the finisher 
of the play having attempted to rewrite portions of it, 
but blending more or less of the original gold with his 
own baser metal. We can see that the gold is there. 
;annot separate it from the alloy. Fleay has edited 
what he believes to be Shakespeare's Timon for the 
New Shakspere Society, and it may be found in their 
Transactions for 1S74. 

Some have supposed that the play was not finished 
until it was wanted by the editors of the folio. The 
Cambridge editors,, after stating what pages it fills in 
that volume, add: "After 9S. the next page is filled 
with the actors' names, and the following page is blank. 
The next page, the first of Julius Ci?sa?\ is numbered 
109, and instead of beginning, as it should, signature 
11. the signature is kk. From this it may be inferred 
that for some reason the printing of Julius Casar was 
commenced before that of Timon was finished. It may 

e his able introduction to the play, below, where the views of 
Knight and some of the earlier critics are alsc iiscussed. 



Introduction n 

be that the manuscript of Timon was imperfect, and 
that the printing was stayed till it could be completed 
by some playwright, engaged for the purpose. But it is 
difficult to conceive how the printer came to miscalcu- 
late so widely the space required to be left." 

Fleay has noticed further that " the play of Troilus 
and Cressida, which is not mentioned at all in the Index 
(' Catalogue ') of the folio, is paged 79 and 80 in its 
second and third pages, and was evidently intended at 
first to follow in its proper place as the pendant or com- 
parison play to Romeo and Juliet. But as this play was 
originally called The History of Troylus and Cressida 
(so in the quarto ed.), and as there is really nothing 
tragical in the main bulk of it, it was doubted if it could 
be put with the Tragedies ; so the editors of the folio 
compromised the matter by putting it between the His- 
tories and the Tragedies, and not putting it at all in 
the Catalogue, though they still retained its first title 
for it as The Tr age die of Troylus and Cressida. The 
space then of pages 80-108, which would have just held 
the Troylus and Cressida, being left unfilled, it became 
necessary to fill it ; . . . they therefore took the incom- 
plete Timon, put it into a playwright's hands, and told 
him to make it up to 30 pages." 

The chief objection to this theory of the Cambridge 
editors and Fleay is that the play in the folio bears 
some marks of having been printed from an acting 
copy. No record of its having been put upon the stage 
has come down to us ; but Dr. Nicholson (Trans, of 



12 Timon of Athens 

New Shaks. Soc. for 1874, p. 252) gives the following 
" tolerably decisive proof that Timon as we now have it 
was an acted play : " " In old plays the entrance direc- 
tions are sometimes in advance of the real entrances, 
having been thus placed in the theatre copy, that the 
performers or bringers-in of stage properties might be 
warned to be in readiness to enter on their cue. In 
act i. scene 1 (folio), is 'Enter Aperniantus' opposite 
' Well mocked,' though he is only seen as in the dis- 
tance by Timon after the Merchant's next words, and 
does not enter till after ' Hee'l spare none.' So in the 
banquet there is ' Sound Tucket. Enter the Maskers' 
etc., before Timon's 'What means that trump?' and 
' Enter Cupid with the Maske of Ladies ' before Cupid's 
forerunning speech." It is difficult to understand how 
these " ear-marks " of the theatre could have got into 
the folio, if the play was not finished up until it was 
wanted by the printer of that edition. 

My own opinion is that Ti?non had been finished and 
put upon the stage some time before the printing of 
the folio. It could never become popular as an act- 
ing play, and was probably soon withdrawn. When 
the editors of the folio were making up that volume, 
they naturally at first rejected Timon, as they did 
Pericles, because it was Shakespeare's only in part ; 
but they afterwards decided to use it, as Fleay has sug- 
gested, on account of the change they made in the 
position of Troilus and Cressida. The latter play had 
already been put in type and duly paged, and the work 



Introduction 13 

had gone along regularly with the Julius Ccesar. Per- 
haps, as Fleay conjectures, that and some of the follow- 
ing plays were in type and printed off before the gap 
made by transposing Troilus and Cressida was provided 
for. For that or some other reason, the editors did not 
use one of the tragedies following Julius Ccesar to fill 
the gap. 1 They took the Timon, and did their best to 
stretch it out to cover as many of the vacant pages as 
possible ; cutting up the prose into short lines, as if 
it were verse, and giving a whole page at the end to 
the dramatis personce, though these might have been put 

1 Stokes (Chron. Order of Shakespeare s Plays, p. 134) suggests that 
the reason was " that none of the others would have fitted ; Macbeth was 
too short, the others were too long." But Othello fills 30 pages in the 
folio, and would have fitted exactly ; while Lear has 29 pages, which 
would have answered equally well, as there is often a blank page be- 
tween two plays. 

Readers who have not the folio or one of the reprints to compare 
may be puzzled to understand why the second page of T. and C. is num- 
bered 79, when the first of Timon, which is supposed to have taken its 
place, is numbered 80; but this 80 is really an error for 78, the two last 
pages of the preceding R. and J. being numbered 76 and 79. The first 
page of T. and C. was doubtless numbered correctly 78. When the 
play was transposed (which must have been done before it was struck 
off), the numbers of the pages were removed except the 79 and 80, 
which were accidentally left. 

It is proper to add that, as T. and C. now stands in the folio, the 
prologue occupies a full page preceding the one we assume to have 
been numbered 78 ; but I have no doubt that the prologue, by some 
oversight, was not put in type until after the transposition. Unlike all 
the other prologues, it occupies a page by itself, without any heading to 
indicate to what play it belongs, the play beginning in the usual form, 
with large type heading, on the next page. 



14 Timon of Athens 

into the blank half-page preceding. If, as Fleay sup- 
poses, the incomplete manuscript had been put into 
some playwright's hands to be filled out to 30 pages, it 
is not likely that he would have come almost ten 
pages short of the mark, doing little more than half of 
the task assigned him. Surely he could easily have 
supplied plenty more "padding " of that inferior sort, 
if it had been wanted. On the other hand, if the play- 
wright's work had already been done, editor and printer 
had to spread the " copy " over as many pages as it 
could be made to cover, and skip the rest in their pagi- 
nation. 1 

The date of Shakespeare's part of the play can be 
fixed only by the internal evidence of style, measure, etc. 
Fleay makes it 1606, or " between Lear and the later 
Roman plays ; " and Furnivall " ? 1607-8." Dowden 
considers that 1607 " cannot be far astray," and I am 
inclined to agree with him. 

The date of the completion of the play by some un- 
known playwright cannot be fixed even approximately. 
The work may have been done at any time after Shake- 
speare threw it aside, and before the publication of the 

1 A little farther on, in Hamlet, they make a mistake of a hundred 
pages, 156 being followed by 257, 258, and so on to the end. In the 
" Histories," the paging, after running along regularly (except for occa- 
sional misprints of numbers, and the omission of pages 47 and 48) to 
100, then goes back to 69, 70, 71, and so on to the end of that division 
of the volume. Of course the little gap of eight pages between Timon 
and Julius Ccssar would not seriously trouble such printers and proof- 
readers. 



Introduction 15 

folio in 1623. If> as I have supposed, the play had 
been acted, it was probably some years earlier than 
1623. 

The play is one of the worst printed in the folio, 
and some of the corruptions of the text are of a pecul- 
iarly perplexing character. 

The Sources of the Plot 

Shakespeare was acquainted with the story of Timon 
through Paynter's Palace of Pleasure, from which he 
had taken the plot of Airs Well, and through a passage 
in Plutarch's Life of Antonius, which he had used in 
Julius Ccesar and Antony and Cleopatra. An earlier 
play on the same subject has come down to our day in 
manuscript ; though in the opinion of Dyce (who edited 
the piece for the old Shakespeare Society in 1842) this 
was never performed in London, being intended solely 
for an academic audience, and it is improbable that 
Shakespeare ever saw it. The writer who completed 
the play seems to have been acquainted with Lucian's 
Dialogue on Timon, which had not then, so far as we 
know, been translated into English ; but he may have 
got this part of his material through some version of 
the story (possibly a dramatized one) that has been lost. 
Allusions to Timon are rather frequent in writers of the 
time. Shakespeare himself refers to " critic Timon " 
in Love's Labour *s Lost (iv. 3. 170), one of his earliest 
productions. 



1 6 Timon of Athens 



General Comments on the Play 

Verplanck 1 (whom I quote at considerable length, as 
in some other plays, because his edition has been long 
out of print, and is not to be found in many libraries) 
remarks : — 

" Timon of Athens is one of several dramas which 
add very much to the general admiration of their author's 
genius, by exhibiting it as exerted in a new and unex- 
pected direction, and thus displaying a variety and 
fertility apparently without limits ; while yet, as com- 
pared either with his exquisite poetical comedies or the 
tragedies of his matured strength, they must be con- 
signed, by the general suffrage, to a secondary class. 

" In its spirit, its object, and the style of its execu- 
tion, Timon of Athens is as much of a class by itself 
among the wide variety of its author's works as even the 
Midsummer-Night* s Dream ; but it is not, like that, of 
a class created by and belonging to himself alone, or 
in the bounds of that magic circle wherein ' none durst 
walk but he.' It was well described by Coleridge (in 
those extemporary and unpublished lectures of 1818, 
of which Mr. Collier has preserved many interesting 
and precious fragments) as being ' a bitter dramatized 
satire.' Hazlitt, too, remarks that it is ' as much a 
satire as a play, containing some of the finest pieces 
of invective possible to be conceived ; ' and several of 

1 The Illustrated Shakespeare, edited by G. C. Verplanck (New 
York, 1847), vol. iii. p. 3 fol. of T. of A, 



Introduction 17 

the critics have pointed out its frequent resemblance, 
not in particular thoughts, but in general spirit,^to the 
vehement and impetuous denunciations of Juvenal. 
This pervading spirit of bitter indignation is carried 
throughout the piece with sustained intensity of pur- 
pose and unbroken unity of effect. Yet Mr. Campbell, 
admitting the resemblance pointed out by Schlegel and 
others to the great Roman satirist, somewhat spleneti- 
cally objects that ' a tragedy has no business to resem- 
ble a biting satire ; ' and for this reason, and for its 
general tone of caustic severity, regarding it as the pro- 
duction of its author's spleen rather than of his heart, 
decides that ' altogether Timon of Athens is a pillar in 
Shakespeare's dramatic fame that might be removed 
without endangering the edifice.' 

" Unquestionably it might be removed without en- 
dangering the solidity or diminishing the elevation of 
the i livelong monument ' of the great poet's glory, yet 
most certainly not without somewhat diminishing its 
variety and extent. To borrow an illustration from the 
often used parallel between the Shakesperian and the 
Greek drama, and the admirable architectural works of 
their respective ages, I would say that Timon is not, 
indeed, like one of the massive yet graceful columns 
which give support and solidity, as well as beauty and 
proportion, to the classic portico, but rather resembles 
one of those grand adjuncts — cloister, or chapel, or 
chapter-house — attached to the magnificent cathedrals 
of the Middle Ages ; and, like one of them, might be 

TIMON OF ATHENS — 2 



1 8 Timon of Athens 

removed without impairing the solemn sublimity of the 
sacred edifice, : r rob! ing it of many of its daring lighter 
graces : yet not without the loss of a portion of the 
ajestic and striking in itself, and by its very con- 
trast adding to the nobler and more impressive beauty 
of the rest an effect of indefinite and apparently bound- 
less grandeur and extent. C : bridge {Literary Remains), 
in a -::npt (1802) at arranging the chronologi- 

cal order of Shakespeare's works, designates Timon as 
belonging, with Lear and Macbeth, to the last epoch of 
the poet's life, when the period of beauty was past, and 
1 that of Suvorrp and grandeur succeeds.' In this view 
: the subject, he designates Timon as ' an after vibra- 
tion of Hamlet' 1 It has, indeed, no little resemblance, 
both in its poetical and its reflective tone, to the 
gloomier and meditative passage- :: H ::.'.:. especially 
those which may be attributed to the enlarged and more 
philosophical Hamlet of 1604 ; while with the path 
the tenderness, and the dramatic interest of the tragedy 
it has very slight affinity. Yet the sad morality of 
Hamlet is. like the 001 ice of the royal Dai 

1 more in sorrow than in anger ; ' while that of Timon is 
fierce, angry, caustic, and vindictive. It is therefore 
instead of being considered as an after- vibration 
of Hamlet, it would be more appropriately described as 
jlemn prelude, or a lingering echo, to the wild pas- 
sion of Lear. But, without immediately connecting 
date with that of any other particular drama, it may be 
remarked that it bears all the indications, literary and 



Introduction 



19 



moral, in its modes of expression and prevailing taste 
in language and imagery, in its colour of thought and 
sentiment and tone of temper and feeling, that it be- 
longs to that period of the author's life when he 
appeared chiefly (to use Mr. Hallam's words) ' as the 
stern censurer of mankind.' 

" In Lear, as in Measure for Measure, the stern, 
vehement rebuke of frailty and vice is embodied in 
characters and incidents of high dramatic interest, and 
made living and individual by becoming the natural 
outpourings of personal emotions and passions. In 
Timon the plot is made to turn upon a single incident, 
and is used merely as a vehicle for the author's own 
caustic satire, or wrathful denunciation of general vice. 
A sudden change of fortune — from boundless prosper- 
ity to ruin and beggary — is used to teach the principal 
character the ingratitude of base mankind, and to con- 
vert his indiscriminating bounty and overflowing kind- 
ness into as indiscriminate a loathing for man and all 
his concerns. When that was done, and his character 
created, all further effort at dramatic interest was 
neglected, and Timon becomes the mouthpiece of the 
poet himself, who probably, without any acquaintance 
with Juvenal — certainly without the slightest direct 
imitation of him — becomes his unconscious rival, 
reminding the reader alike of the splendid and impas- 
sioned declamation, the bitter sneer, and the lofty, sto- 
ical morality of the great Roman satrist, and occasion- 
ally, too, of his revolting and cynical coarseness. 



20 Timon of Athens 

" Among these foaming torrents of acrimonius invec- 
tive are images and expressions — such, for instance, as 

the 

1 planetary plague, when Jove 
Will o'er some high-vic'd city hang his poison 
In the sick air ■ — 

which seem afterwards to have expanded themselves 
into the most magnificent passages of Milton ; while the 
fiery imprecations may again be traced as having lent 
energy and intensity to similar outpourings of rage and 
hatred in the most effective scenes of Otway, Lee, and 
Byron. 

" The inferior characters and the dialogue are 
sketched with much spirit and truth, yet not in the light- 
hearted mood of pure comedy, mingling the author's 
own gayety with that of his audience, but in the sar- 
castic vein of the satirist, more intent on truth of por- 
traiture than on comic enjoyment. 

"All this still leaves Timon far below the rank of 
Othello or Macbeth, nor does it vie, either in poetry cr 
philosophy, with the milder wisdom of As You Like It 
or The Tempest; yet it must surely add not a little even 
to the fame of the author of those matchless dramas 
that he had for a season also wielded the satirist's 
1 horrible scourge ' (as Horace calls it) with an energy 
as terrible as any of those whose fame rests upon that 
alone. 

" The idea of employing a framework of dramatic 
story and dialogue merely for satirical purposes was not 



Introduction 21 

new in England, for it had been frequently employed at 
an early period of English dramatic literature in drama- 
tized eclogues or allegories ; rather, however, as attacks 
upon individuals, or classes of men, than for the pur- 
poses of moral satire. Ben Jonson has something of 
the same idea in his Poetaster^ which is also a personal 
dramatic satire. This very subject of Timon, too, had 
been employed for a purpose like that of Shakespeare ; 
with feeble power, indeed, though with more scholar- 
ship than he possessed. 

" Satirical poetry, in its more restricted sense, as we 
now commonly use the term, and as implying moral 
censure or ridicule, clothed in poetic language and 
ornament, and directed at popular errors or vices, first 
appeared in England and became familiar there in the 
later years of the sixteenth century, during the very 
years when Shakespeare was chiefly employed in his 
brilliant series of poetic comedies. The satires of 
Gascoigne, of Marston, and of Hall appeared succes- 
sively from 1576 to 1598. The first of these in the 
order of merit, as he claimed to be in order of time, was 
Joseph Hall: — 

'I first adventure — follow me who list, 
And be the second English satirist.' 

His satires were about contemporary, in composition and 
publication, with the Merchant of Venice and the First 
Part of Henry IV., and he was no unworthy rival, in a 
different walk of the poet's art, to the great dramatist ; 
for, though his poetical reputation has been merged in 



22 Timon of Athens 

the holier fame which, as Bishop Hall, he afterwards 
gained, and still retains, as a divine of singular and 
original powers of eloquence and thought, he deserves 
an honourable memory of his youthful satires, as dis- 
tinguished for humour, force, and pungency of ex- 
pression, discriminating censure, and well-directed 
indignation. His chief defect is one which he shared 
with the author of Timon and Measure for Measure, 
in a frequent turbid obscurity of language, overcharged 
with varied allusions, and imperfectly developed or 
over-compressed thought. 

" That Shakespeare had read Hall's satires is not 
only probable in itself, as he could not well have been 
ignorant of the works of a popular contemporary who 
was soon after making his way to the higher honours 
of the Church and the State, but is corroborated by 
several resemblances of imagery, which might well have 
been suggested by the satires. It is on that account 
worthy of remark that Hall, in his satires, had expressed 
contempt for that dramatic blank- verse which Shake- 
speare was then forming, and for which he had just 
thrown aside the artificial metrical construction upon 
which Hall prided himself : — 

' Too popular is tragic poesie, 
Straining his tip-toes for a farthing fee, 
And doth besides in nameless numbers tread; 
Unbid iambics flow from careless head.' 

It is a singular fact, and it may possibly have arisen 
from this very challenge, that the spirited rhyming 



Introduction 23 

satirist was soon after eclipsed, in his own walk of 
moral satire, by the ' rhymeless iambics ' of Timon, 
gushing with spontaneous impetuosity from a tragic 
source. 

" But, whatever may have been the connection be- 
tween the writings of the early English satirists and 
Shakespeare's essay in dramatic satire — which I men- 
tion rather as a point overlooked by the critics, and de- 
serving more examination, than as carrying with it any 
conclusive proof — it is certain that he did not carry 
the experiment any further ; whether it was that he 
felt its manifold inferiority, in every higher attribute 
of poetry, to the true drama of character and passion 
evolved in action or suffering, or whether it was that 
the indignant soreness of spirit which is the readiest 
prompter of such verses soon passed off, and the 
morbid rage of Timon, i stung to the quick with high 
wrongs/ gave way forever to the nobler reason of the 
' kindlier-moved ' Prospero. 

" That Timon of Athens, as to all its higher and more 
characteristic portions, was written about the period to 
which Hallam and Coleridge assign it, there can be no 
reasonable doubt. The extrinsic evidence is, indeed, 
negative ; but it shows — by the absence of all such ref- 
erences to this play as are to be traced in respect to 
almost all Shakespeare's works, and to all those of his 
youth — that this one had not been very long known 
before his death ; thus corroborating the internal indi- 
cations that it was written a few years before or after 



24 Timon of Athens 

Ltz find no evidence that it was ever played at 

all ; and it is certain that it could not have been very 
often represented, or the diligence of the Shakespeare 
Society and its indefatigable associates would have 
afforded us some record of its performance. It was 
published only in the folio of 1623, and the manner 
in which it there appears, strangely and variously dis- 
torted and confused, raises some of the most curious 
and doubtful questions of critical theory and discussion. 
"In the text, as originally printed, the reader is 
startled, at first sight, by frequent successions of very 
short lines, or half-lines, metrically looking like lyrical 
blank-verse ; but which no art of good reading, or of 
editorial ingenuity, can bring to anything like harmony 
or regularity, even of that careless and rugged tone in 
which Shakespeare at times thought fit to clothe his 
severer poetry. Steevens, as is his wont, applied him- 
self boldly to bring the lines into regular metre ; but, 
with all his editorial skill of patching and mending, 
altering and transposing, he succeeded only in arrang- 
ing the intractable words in lines of ten syllables, which 
no ear can recognize as verse, though they look like it- 
There are. again, passages printed as prose that seem 
to contain the mutilated elements of rhythmical melody, 
and may have been intended for such. We find, more- 
over, much more than the ordinary difficulties of ob- 
scured or ambiguous meaning. These arise partially 
from manifest errors of the printer or the copyist, and 
some of these the acuteness of various critics has been 



Introduction 25 

able to clear up, while others still remain unexplained ; 
appearing as if the author had not paused to develop 
his own idea, but had contented himself with an indi- 
cation of his general sense, such as is often employed 
by persons not writing immediately for the press, or 
for any eye but their own. 

" But more especially, in addition to all these causes 
of perplexity, there is a most strongly marked difference 
of manner between the truly Shakespearian rhythm and 
diction and imagery of the principal scenes and solilo- 
quies, which give to the drama its poetic character, and 
the tamer and uncharacteristic style of much of the de- 
tail of the story and dialogue, and the accessories of the 
main interest. This is as marked as the contrast in the 
author's juvenile dramas, between the original ground- 
work and the occasional enlargements and additions of 
his ripening taste, such as the passages in Love's Labour 9 s 
Lost, which can be confidently ascribed to the period of 
that comedy's being ' corrected and augmented.' We 
might be disposed to offer the same explanation of the 
cause of difference in this case as that ascertained in 
the other instances, were it not that the inferior portion 
of Timon has scarcely any of the peculiar character of 
the author's more youthful manner, which was as dis- 
tinguishable as that of any other period of his intel- 
lectual progress, and almost always more finished and 
polished in its peculiar way. 

" Several theories have been proposed for the eluci- 
dation of these doubts. The first is that of the English 



26 Timon of Athens 

commentators of the age and school of Steevens and 
Malone, who think that even- thing is accounted for 
by the general allegation that the text is uncommonly 
corrupt. But these errors and confusion of sense or 
metre, even where they appear to be past remedy, yet 
affect only the several passages where they are found, 
and influence but little the general spirit and tone of 
the dialogue. They are of the same sort with those 
found in Coriolanus, All's Well that Ends WelL etc.; 
and, like them, may be struck out of the context, with- 
out essential change in its sense or style. This, there- 
fore., cannot account for such marked discrepancy of 
execution where the meaning is clear. 

" The next solution, in order of time, is that of Cole- 
ridge ; which, however, first appeared in print in 1S42. 
in Collier's Introduction to his edition of Timo?i of 
Athens. Mr. Collier there says : — 

" ' There is an apparent want of finish about some 
portions of Ti?non of Athens, while others are elaborately 
wrought. In his lectures, in 1S15. Coleridge dwelt 
upon this discordance of style at considerable length, 
but we find no trace of it in the published fragments of 
his lectures in 1818. Coleridge said, in 1S15. that he 
saw the same vigorous hand at work throughout, and 
gave no countenance to the notion that any parts of a 
previously existing play had been retained in Timon 
of Athens, as it had come down to us. It was Shake- 
speare's throughout : and. as originally written, he ap- 
prehended that it was one of the author's most complete 



Introduction 27 

performances : the players, however, he felt convinced, 
had done the poet much injustice; and he especially 
instanced (as, indeed, he did in 18 18) the clumsy, 
" clap-trap " blow at the Puritans, in act iii. scene 3, as 
an interpolation by the actor of the part of Timon's 
servant. Coleridge accounted for the ruggedness and 
inequality of the versification upon the same principle, 
and he was persuaded that only a corrupt and imper- 
fect copy had come to the hands of the player-editors 
of the folio of 1623. Why the manuscript of Timon of 
Athens should have been more mutilated than that from 
which other dramas were printed for the first time in 
the same volume, was a question into which he did not 
enter. His admiration of some parts of the tragedy 
was unbounded ; but he maintained that it was, on the 
whole, a painful and disagreeable production, because it 
gave only a disadvantageous picture of human nature, 
very inconsistent with what he firmly believed was our 
great poet's real view of the characters of his fellow- 
creatures. He said that the whole piece was a bitter 
dramatic satire — a species of writing in which Shake- 
speare had shown, as in all other kinds, that he could 
reach the very highest point of excellence. Coleridge 
could not help suspecting that the subject might have 
been taken up under some temporary feeling of vexa- 
tion and disappointment. ' 

11 To this theory the same answer may be given as 
to the preceding, with the additional improbability that 
(as we know from the antiquarian inquiries published 



Timon of Athens 

since Coleridge's lectures) 73 as much less ex- 

posed to such corruption than other more popular 
dramas ; for we cannot find, from the lists of plays per- 
formed at court, the manuscripts of critical dramatists, 

Dr. Forman, or the theatrical barrister who 
the date of Twelfth Night, that Shakespeare's Timon 

ever acted at all before it was printed ; and the 
strong probability it was never what is called 

ck-piece for repeated representation. There 

fore, but little likelihood of any great and frequent 
alterations or interpolations of this play, if it had been 
originally a complete and finished performance : though 
some particular passag - as the sneer at the Puri- 

insisted up: night have thus crept 

into the dialogue. 

"We : :■■:: the theory of Mr. Knight, who, 

mmg a theory first suggested by Dr. Farmer, that 
there existed some earlier popular play of which Timon 
hero, thence maintains, from the contrast of 
style exhibited throughout the drama, between the free 
and flowing grace, the condensation of poetical imager}*, 
the tremendous vigour of moral satire, in its nobler 

5, and the poverty- of thought, meagreness of diction, 
and barrenness of fancy of large portions of the remain- 
iwn of Atiuns was a play originally pro- 
duced by an artist cry inferior to Shakespeare, which 
probably retained possession of the stage for some time 
in its first form : that it has come down to us not wholly 
rewritten, but so far remodelled that entire seer 



Introduction 29 

Shakespeare have been substituted for entire scenes of 
the elder play; and, lastly, that this substitution has 
been almost wholly confined to the character of Timon, 
and that in the development of that character alone, 
with the exception of some few occasional touches here 
and there, we must look for the unity of the Shake- 
spearian conception of the Greek Misanthropos — the 
Timon of Aristophanes and Lucian and Plutarch — the 
11 enemy to mankind " of the popular story-books, of 
the " pleasant Histories and excellent Novels " which 
were greedily devoured by the contemporaries of the 
boyish Shakespeare.' . . . 

" The theory has much to give it probability, and 
may possibly give the true solution of the question. 
Yet there are some weighty reasons that may be 
opposed to it. 

"We have lately been made acquainted, through Mr. 
Dyce's edition of 1842, with the original drama of 
Timon, referred to by Steevens and other editors who 
had seen or heard of it in manuscript. This is certainly 
anterior to Shakespeare's Timon, and the manuscript 
transcript is believed to have been made before 1600. 
It is the work of a scholar, and it appears to have been 
acted. But to this Timon it is apparent that Shake- 
speare was under no obligation of the kind required by 
Mr. Knight's theory, although it may possibly have been 
the medium through which he derived one or two 
incidents from Lucian. We must then presume the 
existence of another and more popular drama on the 



3<3 Timon of Athens 

same subject of which all other trace is lost, and of a 
piece which, if it even existed, could not have been 
from any despicable hand ; for the portions of the Shake- 
spearian drama ascribed to it, however inferior to the 
glow and vigour of the rest, are yet otherwise, as com- 
pared with the writings of preceding dramatists, written 
with no little dramatic spirit and satiric humour. This 
is surely a somewhat unlikely presumption. . . . 

" Another theory is patronized by Ulrici, and is said 
to be the opinion commonly received in Germany. . . . 
It is that Timon is one of Shakespeare's very latest 
works, and has come down to us unfinished. 

" To the theory as thus stated I must object, that, so 
far as we can apply to a great author any thing resem- 
bling those rules whereby the criticism of art is enabled 
so unerringly to divide the works of gr^at painters into 
their several successive " manners," and to appropriate 
particular works of Raphael or Titian to their youth, or 
their improved taste and talent in their several changes 
until maturity, we must assign Timon , not to the latest 
era of Shakespeare's style and fancy, as shown in the 
Tempest and the Winter's Tale, but to the period where 
it is placed by Hallam and Coleridge, as of the epoch 
of Measure for Measure, the revised Hamlet, and 
Lear. 

" But the conclusive argument against this opinion is 
that the play does not, except in a very few insulated 
passages, resemble the unfinished work of a great 
master, where parts are finished, and the rest marked 



Introduction 31 

out only by the outline, or still more imperfect hints. 
On the contrary, it is like such a work left incomplete 
and finished by another hand, inferior, though not 
without skill, and working on the conceptions of the 
greater master. 

"This is precisely the hypothesis to which the 
examination of the other theories has brought my own 
mind. The hypothesis which I should offer — certainly 
with no triumphant confidence of its being the truth, 
but as more probable than any other — is this : Shake- 
speare, at some time during that period, when his temper, 
state of health, or inclination of mind, from whatever 
external cause, strongly prompted him to a severe 
judgment of human nature and acrimonious moral 
censure, adopted the canvas of Timon's story as a fit 
vehicle for poetic satire, in the highest sense of the 
term, as distinguished alike from personal lampoons 
and from the playful exhibition of transient follies. In 
this he poured forth his soul in those scenes and solilo- 
quies the idea of which had invited him to the subject ; 
while, as to the rest, he contented himself with a rapid 
and careless composition of some scenes, and probably 
on others (such as that of Alcibiades with the senate) 
contenting himself with simply sketching out the sub- 
stance of an intended dialogue to be afterwards elabo- 
rated. In this there is no improbability, for literary 
history has preserved the evidence of such a mode of 
composition in Milton and others. The absence of all 
trace of the piece from this time till it was printed in 



32 Timon of Athens 

1623 induces the supposition that in this state the author 
threw aside his unfinished work, perhaps deterred by 
its want of promise of stage effect and interest, perhaps 
invited by some more congenial theme. When, there- 
fore, it was wanted by his friends and c fellows,' Hem- 
inge and Condell, after his death, for the press and the 
stage, some literary artist like Heywood was invited to 
fill up the accessory and subordinate parts of the play 
upon the author's own outline ; and this was done, or 
attempted to be done, in the manner of the great origi- 
nal, as far as possible, but with little distinction of his 
varieties of style. 

" Upon this hypothesis, I suppose the play to be 
mainly and substantially Shakespeare's, filled up, indeed, 
by an inferior hand, but not interpolated in the manner 
of Tate, Davenant, or Dryden, with the rejection and 
adulteration of parts of the original." 

It will be seen that Verplanck, after a careful study 
of earlier theories, suggests the one which is now gener- 
ally adopted by a great majority of the best critics. 
But his edition (probably on account of its limited sale 
before it was destroyed by fire in 1853 and never re- 
printed) appears to have attracted no attention in the 
subsequent discussion of the subject; and so recent an 
editor as Herford (1899) gives the German Tschisch- 
witz the credit of first advancing the same view in 
1868. He adds : " This view has been developed, in 
his own way, by Mr. Fleay, and now prevails in Eng- 
land. In Germany, though widely accepted, it has less 



Introduction 33 

completely triumphed " over other theories. This is 
not the only instance in which Verplanck (as quotations 
in my editions of other plays sufficiently show) was in 
advance of many of his successors, though he has not 
received credit for it. 



TIMON OF ATHENS — 3 



TIMON OF ATHENS 



DRAMATIS PERSONM 

Timon, of Athens. 

Lucius, j 

Lucullus, V flattering lords, 

Sempronius, ) 

Ventidius, one of Timon's false friends. 

Alcibiades, an Athenian captain. 

Apemantus, a churlish philosopher. 

Flavius, steward to Timon. 

Poet, Painter, Jeweller, and Merchant. 

An old Athenian. 

Flaminius, ) 

Lucilius, > servants to Timon. 

Servilius, ) 

Caphis, \ 

Philotus, 

itus, . servants t0 Timon's creditors. 

Lucius, 
Hortensius, I 
And others, J 
A Page. A Fool. Three Strangers. 

Timandra i mistresses to Alcibiades. 
Cupid and Amazons in the mask. 
Other Lords, Senators, Officers, Soldiers, Banditti, and Attendants. 
Scene: Athens, and the neighbouring woods. 




Triclinium 



ACT I 

Scene I. Athens. A Hall in Timon's House 

Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and others, at 
several doors 

Poet. Good day, sir. 

Painter. I am glad you 're well. 

Poet. I have not seen you long ; how goes the world ? 

Painter. It wears, sir, as it grows. 

Poet. Ay, that 's well known ; 

But what particular rarity ? what strange, 
Which manifold record not matches ? See, 
Magic of bounty ! all these spirits thy power 
Hath conjur'd to attend. I know the merchant. 

37 



38 Timon of Athens [Act 1 

Painter. I know them both ; th' other 's a jeweller. 
Merchant. O, 't is a worthy lord ! 
Jeweller. Nay, that 's most fix'd. 

Merchant. A most incomparable man, breath'd, as it 
were, 10 

To an untirable and continuate goodness ; 
He passes. 
Jeweller. I have a jewel here — 
Merchant. O, pray, let 's see 't ! for the Lord Timon, 

sir? 
Jeweller. If he will touch the estimate ; but, for that — 
Poet. \_Reciting to himself ~\ ' When we for recompense 
have prais'd the vile, 
It stains the glory in that happy verse 
Which aptly sings the good.' 

Merchant. J T is a good form. 

\_L00king at the jewel. 
Jeweller. And rich ; here is a water, look ye. 
Painter. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedi- 
cation 20 
To the great lord. 

Poet. A thing slipp'd idly from me. 

Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes 
From whence 't is nourish'd. The fire i' the flint 
Shows not till it be struck ; our gentle flame 
Provokes itself, and like the current flies 
Each bound it chafes. What have you there ? 

Painter. A picture, sir. When comes your book 
forth? 



Scene I] Timon of Athens 39 

Poet. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir. 
Let 's see your piece. 

Painter. 'T is a good piece. 30 

Poet. So 't is ; this comes off well and excellent. 

Painter. Indifferent. 

Poet. Admirable ! how this grace 

Speaks his own standing ! what a mental power 
This eye shoots forth ! how big imagination 
Moves in this lip ! to the dumbness of the gesture 
One might interpret. 

Painter. It is a pretty mocking of the life. 
Here is a touch ; is 't good ? 

Poet. I will say of it, 

It tutors nature ; artificial strife 
Lives in these touches, livelier than life. 40 

Enter certain Senators, and pass over 

Painter. How this lord is follow 'd ! 

Poet. The senators of Athens. — Happy man ! 

Painter. Look, moe ! 

Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of 
visitors. 
I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man 
Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug 
With amplest entertainment. My free drift 
Halts not particularly, but moves itself 
In a wide sea of wax ; no levell'd malice 
Infects one comma in the course I hold, 
But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on, 



4<d Timon of Athens [Act I 

Leaving no tract behind. 

Painter. How shall I understand you ? 

Poet, I will unbolt to you. 

You see how all conditions, how all minds, 
As well of glib and slippery creatures as 
Of grave and austere quality, tender down 
Their services to Lord Timon. His large fortune, 
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging, 
Subdues and properties to his love and tendance 
All sorts of hearts ; yea, from the glass-fac'd flatterer 
To Apemantus, that few things loves better 61 

Than to abhor himself. Even he drops down 
The knee before him, and returns in peace 
Most rich in Timon's nod. 

Painter. I saw them speak together. 

Poet. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill 
Feign 'd Fortune to be thron'd ; the base o' the mount 
Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures, 
That labour on the bosom of this sphere 
To propagate their states. Amongst them all, 
Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix'd, 70 

One do I personate of Lord Timon's frame, 
Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her, 
Whose present grace to present slaves and servants 
Translates his rivals. 

Painter. 'T is conceiv'd to scope. 

This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, 
With one man beckon 'd from the rest below, 
Bowing his head against the steepy mount 



Scene I] Timon of Athens 41 

To climb his happiness, would be well express'd 
In our condition. 

Poet, Nay, sir, but hear me on. 

All those which were his fellows but of late, 80 

Some better than his value, on the moment 
Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance, 
Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear, 
Make sacred even his stirrup, and through him 
Drink the free air. 

Painter, Ay, marry, what of these ? 

Poet When Fortune in her shift and change of mood 
Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants 
Which labour 'd after him to the mountain's top 
Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down, 
Not one accompanying his declining foot. 90 

Painter, 'T is common ; 
A thousand moral paintings I can show 
That shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune's 
More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well 
To show Lord Timon that mean eyes have seen 
The foot above the head. 

Trumpets sound. Enter Lord Timon, addressing him- 
self courteously to every suitor ; a Messenger fr-om 
Ventidius talking with him ; Lucilius and other 
servants following 

Timon, Imprison'd is he, say you ? 
Messenger. Ay, my good lord ; five talents is his debt, 
His means most short, his creditors most strait. 



42 Timon of Athens [Act I 

Your honourable letter he desires ioo 

To those have shut him up, which failing 
Periods his comfort. 

Timon. Noble Ventidius ! Well ; 

I am not of that feather to shake off 
My friend when he must need me. I do know him 
A gentleman that well deserves a help, 
Which he shall have. I '11 pay the debt and free him. 

Messenger. Your lordship ever binds him. 

Timon. Commend me to him. I will send his ransom ; 
And being enfranchis'd, bid him come to me. 
'T is not enough to help the feeble up, no 

I But to support him after. Fare you well. 

Messenger. All happiness to your honour ! [Exit. 

Enter an old Athenian 

Old Athenian. Lord Timon, hear me speak. 

Timon. Freely, good father. 

Old Athenian. Thou hast a servant named Lucilius. 

Timon. I have so ; what of him ? 

Old Athenian. Most noble Timon, call the man be- 
fore thee. 

Timon. Attends he here, or no ? — Lucilius ! 

Lucilius. Here, at your lordship's service. 

Old Athenian. This fellow here, Lord Timon, this 
thy creature, 
By night frequents my house. I am a man 120 

That from my first have been inclin'd to thrift ; 
And my estate deserves an heir more rais'd 



Scene I] Timon of Athens 43 

Than one which holds a trencher. 

Timon. Well ; what further ? 

Old Athenian. One only daughter have I, no kin else, 
On whom I may confer what I have got. 
The maid is fair, o' the youngest for a bride, 
And I have bred her at my dearest cost 
In qualities of the best. This man of thine 
Attempts her love. I prithee, noble lord, 
Join with me to forbid him her resort ; 130 

Myself have spoke in vain. 

Timon. The man is honest. 

Old Athenian. Therefore he will be, Timon. 
His honesty rewards him in itself ; 
It must not bear my daughter. 

Timon. Does she love him ? 

Old Athenian. She is young and apt ; 
Our own precedent passions do instruct* us 
What levity 's in youth. 

Timon. [ To Lucilius] Love you the maid ? 

Lucilius. Ay, my good lord, and she accepts of it. 

Old Athenian. If in her marriage my consent be 
missing, 
I call the gods to witness, I will choose 140 

Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world, 
And dispossess her all. 

Timon. How shall she be endow'd 

If she be mated with an equal husband ? 

Old Athenian. Three talents on the present; in fu- 
ture, all. 



44 Timon of Athens [Act I 

Timon. This gentleman of mine hath serv'd me long ; 
To build his fortune I will strain a little. 
For "t is a bond in men. Give him thy daughter ; 
What you bestow, in him I '11 counterpoise, 
And make him weigh with her. 

Old Athenian. Most noble lord s 

Pawn me to this your honour, she is his. 150 

Timon. My hand to thee ; mine honour on my 
promise. 

Lucilius. Humbly I thank your lordship. Never may 
That state or fortune fall into my keeping 
Which is not owed to you ! 

[Exeunt Lucilius and old Athenian. 

Poet. Vouchsafe my labour, and long live your lord- 
ship ! 

Timon. I thank you ; you shall hear from me anon. 
Go not away. — What have you there, my friend ? 

Painter. A piece of painting, which I do beseech 
Your lordship to accept. 

Timon. Painting is welcome. 

The painting is almost the natural man, 16c 

For since dishonour traffics with man's nature, 
He is but outside ; these pencil'd figures are 
Even such as they give out. I like your work, 
And you shall find I like it ; wait attendance 
Till you hear further from me. 

Painte?-. The gods preserve ye ! 

Timon. Well fare you. gentleman, give me your hand ; 
We must needs dine together. — Sir, your jewel 



Scene I] Tirnon of Athens 45 

Hath suffer'd under praise. 

Jeweller. What, my lord ! dispraise ? 

Timon. A mere satiety of commendations. 
If I should pay you for 't as 't is extoll'd, 170 

It would unclew me quite. 

Jeweller. My lord, 'tis rated 

As those which sell would give ; but you well know, 
Things of like value differing in the owners 
Are prized by their masters. Believe 't, dear lord, 
You mend the jewel by the wearing it. 

Timon. Well mock'd. 

Merchant. No, my good lord ; he speaks the common 
tongue 
Which all men speak with him. 

Timon. Look, who comes here. Will you be chid ? 

Enter Apemantus 

Jeweller. We '11 bear, with your lordship. 
Merchant He '11 spare none. 

Timon. Good morrow to thee, gentle Apemantus ! 
Apemantus. Till I be gentle, stay thou for thy good 
morrow ; 182 

When thou art Timon 's dog, and these knaves honest. 
Timon. Why dost thou call them knaves ? thou 

know'st them not. 
Apemantus. Are they not Athenians ? 
Timon. Yes. 

Apemantus. Then I repent not. 
Jeweller. You know me, Apemantus ? 



46 Timon of Athens [Act I 

Apemantus. Thou know'st I do ; I call'd thee by thy 
name. 

Timon. Thou art proud, Apemantus. 190 

Apemantus. Of nothing so much as that I am 
not like Timon. 

Timon. Whither art going ? 

Apemantus. To knock out an honest Athenian's 
brains. 

Timon. That 's a deed thou 'It die for. 

Apemantus. Right, if doing nothing be death by 
the law. 

Timon. How likes t thou this picture, Apemantus ? 

Apemantus. The best, for the innocence. 200 

Timon. Wrought he not well that painted it ? 

Apemantus. He wrought better that made the 
painter ; and yet he 's but a filthy piece of work. 

Painter. You 're a dog. 

Apemantus. Thy mother 's of my generation ; 
what 's she, if I be a dog ? 

Timon. Wilt dine with me, Apemantus ? 

Apemantus. No ; I eat not lords. 

Timon. An thou shouldst, thou 'dst anger ladies. 

Apemantus. O, they eat lords; so they come by 
great bellies. 211 

Timon. That 's a lascivious apprehension. 

Apemantus. So thou apprehendest it, take it for 
thy labour. 

Timon. How dost thou like this jewel, Apeman- 
tus? 



Scene I] Timon of Athens 47 

Apemantus. Not so well as plain-dealing, which 
will not cost a man a doit. 

Timon. What dost thou think 't is worth ? 

Apemantus. Not worth my thinking. — How now, 
poet ! 220 

Poet. How now, philosopher ! 

Apemantus. Thou liest. 

Poet Art not one ? 

Apemantus. Yes. 

Poet Then I lie not. 

Apemantus. Art not a poet ? 

Poet. Yes. 

Apemantus. Then thou liest ; look in thy last work, 
where thou hast feigned him a worthy fellow. 

Poet That's not feigned ; he is so. 230 

Apemantus. Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay 
thee for thy labour ; he that loves to be flattered is 
worthy o' the flatterer. Heavens, that I were a lord ! j 

Timon. What wouldst do then, Apemantus ? 

Apemantus. E'en as Apemantus does now ; hate a 
lord with my heart. 

Timon. What, thyself ? 

Apemantus. Ay. 

Timon. Wherefore ? 

Apemantus. That I had no angry wit to be a lord. 
— Art not thou a merchant ? 241 

Merchant. Ay, Apemantus. 

Apemantus. Traffic confound thee, if the gods will 
not! 



48 Timon of Athens [Act I 

Merchant. If traffic do it, the gods do it. 
Apemantus. Traffic 's thy god ; and thy god con- 
found thee ! 

Trumpet sounds. Enter a Messenger 

Timon. What trumpet 's that ? 

Messenger. ? T is x\lcibiades, and some twenty horse, 
All of companionship. 249 

Timon. Pray, entertain them ; give them guide to 
us. — [Exeunt some Attendants. 

You must needs dine with me. — Go not you hence 
Till I have thank'd you ; and when dinner 's done 
Show me this piece. — I am joyful of your sights. — 

Enter Alcibiades, with the rest 

Most welcome, sir ! 

Apeniantus. So, so, there ! 

Aches contract and starve your supple joints ! 
That there should be small love 'mongst these sweet 

knaves, 
And all this courtesy ! The strain of man 's bred out 
Into baboon and monkey. 

Alcibiades. Sir, you have sav'd my longing, and I 
feed 259 

Most hungerly on your sight. 

Timon. Right welcome, sir ! 

Ere we depart, we '11 share a bounteous time 
In different pleasures. Pray you, let us in. 

[Exeunt all except Ape??iantus. 



Scene I] Timon of Athens 49 

Enter two Lords 

1 Lord. What time o' day is % Apemantus ? 
Apemantus. Time to be honest. 

1 Lord. That time serves still. 

Apemantus, The more accursed thou, that still 
omitt'st it. 

2 Lord. Thou art going to Lord Timon's feast ? 
Apemantus. Ay, to see meat fill knaves and wine 

heat fools. 
2 Lord. Fare thee well, fare thee well, 
Apemantus. Thou art a fool to bid me farewell 

twice. 270 

2 Lord. Why, Apemantus ? 

Apemantus. Shouldst have kept one to thyself, for 
I mean to give thee none. 

1 Lord. Hang thyself ! 

Apemantus. No, I will do nothing at thy bidding ; 
make thy requests to thy friend. 

2 Lord. Away, unpeaceable dog, or I '11 spurn 
thee hence ! 

Apemantus. I will fly, like a dog, the heels o'er 
the ass. [Exit. 

1 Lord. He 's opposite to humanity. — 

Come, shall we in, 
And taste Lord Timon 's bounty? he outgoes 282 

The very heart of kindness. 

2 Lord. He pours it out ; Plutus, the god of gold, 
Is but his steward ; no meed but he repays 

TIMON OF ATHENS — 4 



50 Tim on of Athens [Act I 

S enfold above itself, no gift to him 
But breeds the giver a return exceeding 

A'.\ use :: quittance. 

i Z The noblest mind he carries 

Tit*: eve: v:vem'd man. -S: 

2 Lord. Long may he live in I : r: vr.es 1 Shall we in ? 

i Lord. I 11 keep you company. ' 1 cunt. 

Scene It ~4 Banqueting-room in Jimoris House 

Hautboys playing loud music. A great banquet served 
Flavius azr*f others attending; then enter Timon, 

ALcrFiADES. Lords. Senators. j?:u Vzvtidius- Then 
comes, dropping after .: . ". A I z : l A N 1 s . discontentedly tike 

'*•:"";.■:.>" 

Ventidius. Most honour "d Timon, 
It hath pleas 'd the gees :: remember my father's age, 

] call him to long peace. 
He is gone happy, and has left me rich ; 
I hen, ss in grateful virtue I am bound 

our free heart, I do return those talents, 
Doubled with thanks and service, from whose help 
I deriv'd liberty. 

an. O. by no means, 

Honest Ventidius ; you mistake my I : 
I gave it free' evd ; and there 's none io 

Can truly say be gives if be receives 
If our betters play at thai game, we must not dare 
To imitate them Eaults that are rich are fair. 



Scene ii] Timon of Athens 51 

Ventidius. A noble spirit ! 

Timon. Nay, my lords, 

\They all stand ceremoniously looking on Timon, 
Ceremony was but devis'd at first 
To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes, 
Recanting goodness, sorry ere 't is shown ; 
But where there is true friendship, there needs none. 
Pray, sit ; more welcome are ye to my fortunes 
Than my fortunes to me, {They sit 

1 Lord. My lord, we always have confess'd it. 21 

Apemantus. Ho, ho, confess'd it ! hang'd it, have 
you not ? 

Timon. O, Apemantus, you are welcome. 

Apemantus, No, 

You shall not make me welcome ; 
I come to have thee thrust me out of doors. 

Timon. Fie, thou 'rt a churl ; you 've got a humour 
there 
Does not become a man, 't is much to blame. — 
They say, my lords, ira furor brevis est ; but yond 
man is ever angry. Go, let him have a table by 
himself, for he does neither affect company nor is he 
fit for 't, indeed. 31 

Apemantus. Let me stay at thine apperil, Timon. 
I come to observe ; I give thee warning on 't. 

Timon. I take no heed of thee ; thou 'rt an Athe- 
nian, therefore welcome. I myself would have no 
power ; prithee, let my meat make thee silent. 

Apemantus. I scorn thy meat ; 't would choke me, 



52 Timon of Athens [Act I 

for I should ne'er flatter thee. — O you gods, what 
a number of men eat Timon, and he sees 'em not ! 
It grieves me to see so many dip their meat in one 
man's blood ; and all the madness is, he cheers 
them up too. 42 

I wonder men dare trust themselves with men. 
Methinks they should invite them without knives ; 
Good for their meat, and safer for their lives. 
There's much example for 't; the fellow who sits 
next him now, parts bread with him, pledges the 
breath of him in a divided draught, is the readiest 
man to kill him ; 't has been proved. If I were a 
huge man, I should fear to drink at meals, 50 

Lest they should spy my windpipe's dangerous notes ; 
Great men should drink with harness on their throats. 

Timon. My lord, in heart ; and let the health go 
round. 

2 Lord. Let it flow this way, my good lord. 

Apemantus. Flow this way ! A brave fellow ! he 
keeps his tides well. These healths will make thee 
and thy state look ill, Timon. Here 's that which is 
too weak to be a sinner, honest water, which ne'er 
left man i' the mire. 

This and my food are equals, there 's no odds ; 60 

Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods. 

Apemantus } s grace 

Immortal gods, I crave no pelf ; 
I pray for no man but myself. 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 53 

Grant I may never prove so fond 
To trust man on his oath or bond, 
Or a harlot for her weeping, 
Or a dog that seems a-sleeping, 
Or a keeper with my freedom, 
Or my friends, if I should need 'em. 
Amen. So fall to 't ; 70 

Rich men sin, and I eat root. [Eats and drinks. 
Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus ! 

Timon. Captain Alcibiades, your heart 's in the 
field now. 

Alcibiades. My heart is ever at your service, my 
lord. 

Timon. You had rather be at a breakfast of ene- 
mies than a dinner of friends. 

Alcibiades. So they were bleeding-new, my lord, 
there 's no meat like 'em. I could wish my best 
friend at such a feast. 81 

Apemantus. Would all those flatterers were thine 
enemies then, that then thou mightst kill 'em and 
bid me to 'em! 

1 Lord. Might we but have that happiness, my 
lord, that you would once use our hearts, whereby 
we might express some part of our zeals, we should 
think ourselves for ever perfect. 88 

Timon. O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods 
themselves have provided that I shall have much 
help from you ; how had you been my friends else ? 
why have you that charitable title from thousands, 



.-4 Timon of Athens [Ac: I 

did not you chiefly belong to my heart ? I have told 
more of you to myself than you can with modesty 
speak in your own behalf: and thus far I confirm 
you- O you gods, think I, what need we have any 
friends, if we should ne ? er have need of 'em ? they 
were the most needless creatures living, should we 
ne'er have use for 'em, and would most resemble 
sweet instruments hung up in cases that keep their 
sounds to themselves. Why. I have often wished 
...self poorer, that I might come nearer to you. We 
ai e born to do benefits : and what better or properer 
can we call our own than the riches of our friends ? 
O, what a precious comfort 't is. to have so many, 
like brothers, commanding one another's fortunes ! 
O joy, e'en made away ere *t can be born! Mine 
eyes cannot hold out water, methinks ; to forget their 
faults, I drink to you. 109 

Apemantus. Thou weepest to make them drink, 
Timon. 

2 Lard. Joy had the like conception in our f/zs. 
And at that instant like a babe sprung up. 

Apemantus. Ho. ho ! I laugh to think that babe a 
bastard. 

5 Lord* I promise you, my lord, you mov'd me 
much. 

Apemantus. Much ! [Tucket unihin. 

Timon. What means that trump ! — 

Enter z ^rvant 

How now ? 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 55 

Servant. Please you, my lord, there are certain 
ladies most desirous of admittance. 

Timon. Ladies ! what are their wills ? 120 

Servant. There comes with them a forerunner, my 
lord, which bears that office, to signify their pleasures. 

Timon. I pray, let them be admitted. 

Enter Cupid 

Cupid. Hail to thee, worthy Timon ! — and to all 
That of his bounties taste ! — The five best senses 
Acknowledge thee their patron, and come freely 
To gratulate thy plenteous bosom : th' ear, 
Taste, touch, and smell, pleas 'd from thy table rise ; 
They only now come but to feast thine eyes. 

Timon. They 're welcome all ; let 'em have kind ad- 
mittance. — 130 
Music, make their welcome ! [Exit Cupid. 

1 Lord. You see, my lord, how ample you 're belov'd. 

Music. Re-enter Cupid, with a mask of Ladies as 
Amazons, with lutes in their hands dancing and playing 

Apemantus. Hey-day, what a sweep of vanity comes 
this way ! 
They dance ! they are mad women. 
Like madness is the glory of this life, 
As this pomp shows to a little oil and root. 
We make ourselves fools to disport ourselves, 
And spend our flatteries to drink those men 
Upon whose age we void it up again, 



56 Timon of xlthens [Act l 

With poisonous spite and envy. 140 

Who lives that ? s not depraved or depraves ? 

Who dies that bears not one spurn to their graves 

Of their friends' gift ? 

I should fear those that dance before me now 

Would one day stamp upon me ; \ has been done ; 

Men shut their doors against a setting sun. 

The Lords rise from table, with much adoring of Timon; 
and to show their laves, each singles out an Amazon, 
and all dance, men with a /.:.'. a lefty strain or two 
to the hautboys, and cease 

Timon. You have done our pleasures much grace, 
fair ladies, 
Set a fair fashion on our entertainment, 
Which was not half so beautiful and kind ; 
You have added worth unto *t and lustre, 150 

And entertain'd me with mine own device. 
I am to thank you for "t. 

1 Lady. My lord, you take us even at the best. 

Apemantus. Faith, for the worst is filthy, and 
would not hold taking. I doubt me. 

Timon. Ladies, there is an idle banquet attends you ; 
Please you to dispose yourselves. 

All Ladies. Most thankfully, my lord. 

[Exeunt Cupid and Ladies. 

Timon. Flavius. 155 

Flavius. My lord ? 

Timon. The little casket bring me hither. 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 57 

Flavins. Yes, my lord. — [Aside] More jewels yet I 
There is no crossing him in 's humour ; 
Else I should tell him, — well, i' faith, I shoukj, 
When all 's spent, he 'd be cross'd then, an he could. 
T is pity bounty had not eyes behind, 
That man might ne'er be wretched for his mind. [Exit 

1 Lord. Where be our men ? 
Servant Here, my lord, in readiness. 

2 Lord. Our horses ! 

Re-enter Flavius, with the easket 

Timon. O my friends, 

I have one word to say to you. — Look you, my good 
lord. 170 

I must entreat you, honour me so much 
As to advance this jewel ; accept it and wear it, 
Kind my lord. 

1 Lord. I am so far already in your gifts, — 

All. So are we all. 

Enter a Servant 

Servant My lord, there are certain nobles of the 
senate, 
Newly alighted, and come to visit you. 

Timon. They are fairly welcome. 

Flavius. I beseech your honour, 

Vouchsafe me a word ; it does concern you near. 179 

Timon. Near ! why then, another time I '11 hear thee. 
I prithee, let 's be provided to show them entertainment. 

Flavius. [Aside] I scarce know how. 



58 Timon of Athens [Act I 

Enter a second Servant 

2 Servant. May it please your honour, Lord Lucius, 
Out of his free love, hath presented to you 

Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver. 

Timon. I shall accept them fairly ; let the presents 
Be worthily entertain 'd. — 

Enter a third Servant 

How now ! what news ? 

3 Servant. Please you, my lord, that honourable 
gentleman, Lord Lucullus, entreats your company 
to-morrow to hunt with him, and has sent your 
honour two brace of greyhounds. 191 

Timon. I '11 hunt with him ; and let them be receiv'd, 
Not without fair reward. 

Flavius. [Aside] What will this come to ? 

He commands us to provide, and give great gifts, 
And all out of an empty coffer ; 
Nor will he know his purse, or yield me this, 
To show him what a beggar his heart is, 
Being of no power to make his washes good. 
His promises fly so beyond his state 
That what he speaks is all in debt ; he owes 200 

For every word. He is so kind that he now 
Pays interest for 't ; his land 's put to their books. 
Well, would I were gently put out of office 
Before I were forc'd out ! 
Happier is he that has no friend to feed 
Than such that do e'en enemies exceed. 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 59 

I bleed inwardly for my lord. {Exit. 

Timo7i. You do yourselves 

Much wrong, you bate too much of your own merits. — 
Here, my lord, a trifle of our love. 

2 Lord. With more than common thanks I will 

receive it. 210 

3 Lord. O, he 's the very soul of bounty ! 
Timon. And now I remember, my lord, you gave 

Good words the other day of a bay courser 
I rode on ; it is yours, because you lik'd it. 

2 Lord. O, I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, in that. 

Timon. You may take my word, my lord ; I know, 
no man 
Can justly praise but what he does affect. 
I weigh my friend's affection with mine own ; 
I '11 tell you true. I '11 call to you. 

All Lords. O, none so welcome. 

Timon. I take all and your several visitations 220 
So kind to heart, 't is not enough to give ; 
Methinks, I could deal kingdoms to my friends, 
And ne'er be weary. — Alcibiades, 
Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich ; 
It comes in charity to thee, for all thy living 
Is 'mongst the dead, and all the lands thou hast 
Lie in a pitch'd field. 

Alcibiades. Ay, defil'd land, my lord. 

1 L,ord. We are so virtuously bound — 

Timon. And so 

Am I to you. 



60 Timon of Athens [Act l 

2 Lord. So infinitely endear'd — 229 

Timon. All to you. — Lights, more lights ! 

i Lord. The best of happiness, 

Honour, and fortunes, keep with you, Lord Timon ! 

Timon. Ready for his friends. 

[Exeunt all but Apemantus and Timon. 

Apemantus. What a coil 's here ! 

Serving of becks and jutting-out of bums ! 
I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums 
That are given for 'em. Friendship 's full of dregs ; 
Methinks, false hearts should never have sound legs. 
Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on court'sies. 

Timon. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, 
I would be good to thee. 239 

Apemantus. No, I '11 nothing ; for if I should be 
bribed too, there would be none left to rail upon 
thee, and then thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou 
givest so long, Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away 
thyself in paper shortly. What need these feasts, 
pomps, and vain-glories ? 

Timon. Nay, an you begin to rail on society once, 
I am sworn not to give regard to you. Farewell ; 
and come with better music. {Exit. 

Apemantus. So. 
Thou wilt not hear me now ; thou shalt not then. 250 
I '11 lock thy heaven from thee. 
O, that men's ears should be 
To counsel deaf, but not to flattery 1 




1 $;W''/^r*--' v 
Athens from the Pnyx 



ACT II 

Scene I. A Senator's House 

Enter Senator, with papers in his hand 

Senator. And late, five thousand ; to Varro and to 
Isidore 
He owes nine thousand, besides my former sum, 
Which makes it five and twenty. Still in motion 
Of raging waste ? It cannot hold ; it will not. 
If I want gold, steal but a beggar's dog 
And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold. 
If I would sell my horse and buy twenty moe 

61 



62 Timon of Athens [Act n 

Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon, 

Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me straight, 

And able horses. No porter at his gate, 10 

But rather one that smiles and still invites 

All that pass by. It cannot hold ; no reason 

Can found his state in safety. — Caphis, ho 1 

C aphis, I say ! 

Enter Caphis 

Caphis. Here, sir ; what is your pleasure ? 

Senator. Get on your cloak, and haste you to Lord 
Timon ; 
Importune him for my moneys. Be not ceas'd 
With slight denial, nor then silenc'd when — 
' Commend me to your master ' — and the cap 
Plays in the right hand, thus ; but tell him, 
My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn 20 

Out of mine own. His days and times are past, 
And my reliances on his fracted dates 
Have smit my credit. I love and honour him, 
But must not break my back to heal his finger. 
Immediate are my needs, and my relief 
Must not be toss'd and turn'd to me in words, 
But find supply immediate. Get you gone. 
Put on a most importunate aspect, 
A visage of demand ; for, I do fear, 
When every feather sticks in his own wing, 30 

Lord Timon will be left a naked gull, 
Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone. 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 63 

Caphis. I go, sir. 

Senator. I go, sir ! — Take the bonds along with you, 
And have the dates in compt. 

Caphis. I will, sir. 

Senator. Go. [Exeunt. 



Scene II. A Hall in Timon } s House 

Enter Flavius, with many bills in his hand 

Flavius. No care, no stop ! so senseless of expense 
That he will neither know how to maintain it 
Nor cease his flow of riot, takes no account 
How things go from him nor resumes no care 
Of what is to continue ; never mind 
Was to be so unwise to be so kind. 
What shall be done ? he will not hear till feel. 
I must be round with him now he comes from hunting. 
Fie, fie, fie, fie ! 

Enter Caphis, and the Servants of Isidore and Varro 

Caphis. Good even, Varro. What, 

You come for money ? 

Servant of Varro. Is 't not your business too ? 10 

Caphis. It is. — And yours too, Isidore ? 

Servant of Isidore. It is so. 

Caphis. Would we were all discharg'd ! 

Servant of Varro. I fear it. 

Caphis. Here comes the lord. 



64 Timon of Athens [Act 11 

Enter Timon, Alcibiades, and Lords, etc. 

Timon. So soon as dinner 's done we '11 forth again, 
My Alcibiades. — With me ? what is your will ? 

Caphis. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. 

Timon. Dues ! Whence are you ? 

Caphis. Of Athens here, my lord. 

Timon. Go to my steward. 

Caphis. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off 
To the succession of new days this month. 20 

My master is awak'd by great occasion 
To call upon his own, and humbly prays you 
That with your other noble parts you '11 suit 
In giving him his right. 

Timon. Mine honest friend, 

I prithee, but repair to me next morning. 

Caphis. Nay, good my lord, — 

Timon. Contain thyself, good friend. 

Servant of Varro. One Varro's servant, my good 
lord, — 

Servant of Isidore. From Isidore ; 

He humbly prays your speedy payment. 

Caphis. If you did know, my lord, my master's 
wants — 

Servant of Varro. ? T was due on forfeiture, mi- 
lord, six weeks 30 
And past. 

Servant of Isidore. Your steward puts me off, my 
lord, 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 65 

And I am sent expressly to your lordship. 

Timon. Give me breath. — 
I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on ; 
I '11 wait upon you instantly. — 

\_Exeunt Alcibiades and Lords. 
[To Flavins] Come hither. Pray you, 
How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd 
With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds 
And the detention of long-since-due debts, 
Against my honour ? 

Flavins. Please you, gentlemen, 40 

The time is unagreeable to this business. 
Your importunacy cease till after dinner, 
That I may make his lordship understand 
Wherefore you are not paid. 

Timon. Do so, my friends. — See them well enter- 
tain 'd. [Exit. 

Flavins. Pray, draw near. [Exit. 

Enter Apemantus and Fool 

Caphis. Stay, stay here comes the fool with Ape- 
mantus ; let 's ha' some sport with 'em. 

Servant of Varro. Hang him, he '11 abuse us. 

Servant of Isidore. A plague upon him, dog ! 50 

Servant of Varro. How dost, fool ? 

Apemantus. Dost dialogue with thy shadow ? 

Servant of Varro. I speak not to thee. 

Apemantus. No, 'tis to thyself. — [To the Fool] 
Come away. 

TIMON OF ATHENS — 5 



66 Timon of Athens [Act n 

Servant of Isidore. There 's the fool hangs on 
your back already. 

Apemantus. No, thou stand'st single, thou 'rt not 
on him yet. 

Caphis. Where 's the fool now ? 60 

Apemantus. He last asked the question. — Poor 
rogues, and usurers' men ! bawds between gold and 
want ! 

All Servants. What are we, Apemantus ? 

Apemantus. Asses. 

All Servants. Why ? 

Apemanttcs. That you ask me what you are, and 
do not know yourselves. — Speak to 'em, fool. 

Fool. How do you, gentlemen ? 

All Servants. Gramercies, good fool ; how does 
your mistress ? 71 

Fool. She 9 s e'en sitting on water to scald such 
chickens as you are. Would we could see you at 
Corinth ! 

Apemantus, Good ! gramercy \ 

Enter Page 

Fool. Look you, here comes my mistress' page. 

Page. [To the Fool] Why, how now, captain ! what 
do you in this wise company ? — How dost thou, 
Apemantus ? 

Apemantus. Would I had a rod in my mouth, that 
I might answer thee profitably. 81 

Page. Prithee, Apemantus, read me the super- 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 67 

scription of these letters ; I know not which is 
which. 

Apemantus. Canst not read ? 

Page. No. 

Apemantus. There will little learning die then, 
that day thou art hanged. This is to Lord Timon ; 
this to Alcibiades. Go ; thou wast born a bastard, 
and thou 't die a bawd. 90 

Page, Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt 
famish a dog's death. Answer not; I am gone. 

{Exit. 

Apemantus. E'en so thou outrunnest grace. — 
Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon's. 

Fool. Will you leave me there ? 

Apemantus. If Timon stay at home. — You three 
serve three usurers ? 

All Servants. Ay ; would they served us ! 

Apemantus. So would I, — as good a trick as ever 
hangman served thief. 100 

Fool. Are you three usurers' men ? 

All Servants. Ay, fool. 

Fool. I think no usurer but has a fool to his ser- 
vant ; my mistress is one, and I am her fool. When 
men come to borrow of your masters, they approach 
sadly and go away merry ; but they enter my mis- 
tress' house merrily and go away sadly. The reason 
of this ? 

Servant of Varro. I could render one. 

Apemantus. Do it then, that we may account thee 



68 Timon of Athens [Act n 

a whoremaster and a knave ; which notwithstanding, 
thou shalt be no less esteemed. 112 

Servant of Varro. What is a whoremaster, fool ? 

Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like 
thee. 'T is a spirit : sometime 't appears like a 
lord ; sometime like a lawyer ; sometime like a phi- 
losopher, with two stones moe than 's artificial one. 
He is very often like a knight ; and, generally, in all 
shapes that man goes up and down in from four- 
score to thirteen, this spirit walks in. 120 

Servant of Varro. Thou art not altogether a fool. 

Fool. Nor thou altogether a wise man ; as much 
foolery as I have, so much wit thou lackest. 

Apemantus. That answer might have become 
Apemantus. 

All Servants. Aside, aside ; here comes Lord Timon. 

Re-enter Timon and Flavius 

Apemantus. Come with me, fool, come. 
Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, 
and woman ; sometime the philosopher. 

\_Exeunt Apemantus and Fool. 
Flavius. Pray you, walk near ; I '11 speak with you 
anon. \_Exeunt Servants. 

Timon. You make me marveL Wherefore ere this 
time 131 

Had you not fully laid my state before me, 
That I might so have rated my expense 
As I had leave of means ? 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 69 

Flavins. You would not hear me 

At many leisures I propos'd. 

Timon. Go to ; 

Perchance some single vantages you took 
When my indisposition put you back, 
And that unaptness made your minister 
Thus to excuse yourself. 

Flavius. O my good lord, 

At many times I brought in my accounts, 140 

Laid them before you ; you would throw them off, 
And say you found them in mine honesty. 
When for some trifling present you have bid me 
Return so much, I have shook my head and wept, 
Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners, pray'd you 
To hold your hand more close. I did endure 
Not seldom nor no slight checks, when I have 
Prompted you in the ebb of your estate 
And your great flow of debts. My loved lord, 
Though you hear now — too late ! — yet now 's a time 
The greatest of your having lacks a half 151 

To pay your present debts. 

Timon. Let all my land be sold. 

Flavius. ? T is all engag'd, some forfeited and gone, 
And what remains will hardly stop the mouth 
Of present dues. The future comes apace ; 
What shall defend the interim ? and at length 
How goes our reckoning ? 

Timon. To Lacedaemon did my land extend. 

Flavius. O my good lord, the world is but a word ! 



70 Timon of Athens [Act n 

Were it all yours to give it in a breath, 160 

How quickly were it gone ! 

Timon. You tell me true. 

Flavins. If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood, 
Call me before the exactest auditors 
And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me, 
When all our offices have been oppress'd 
With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept 
W T ith drunken spilth of wine, when every room 
Hath blaz'd with lights and bray'd with minstrelsy, 
I have retir'd me to a wakeful couch 
And set mine eyes at flow. 

Timon. Prithee, no more. 170 

Flavius. Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this 
lord! 
How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants 
This night englutted ! Who is not Lord Timon 's ? 
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord 

Timon's ? 
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon ! 
Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise, 
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made. 
Feast-won, fast-lost ; one cloud of winter showers, 
These flies are couch'd. 

Timon. Come, sermon me no further. 

No villanous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart ; 180 

Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given. 
Why dost thou weep ? Canst thou the conscience lack 
To think I shall lack friends ? Secure thy heart ; 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 71 

If I would broach the vessels of my love 
And try the argument of hearts by borrowing, 
Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use 
As I can bid thee speak. 

Flavins. Assurance bless your thoughts ! 

Timon. And, in some sort, these wants of mine are 
crown'd, 
That I account them blessings ; for by these 
Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you 190 
Mistake my fortunes ; I am wealthy in my friends. 
Within there ! — Flaminius ! — Servilius ! 

Enter Flaminius, Servilius, and other Servants 

Servants. My lord ? my lord ? 

Timon. I will dispatch you severally : — you to 
Lord Lucius ; — to Lord Lucullus you : I hunted with 
his honour to-day ; — you, to Sempronius. Commend 
me to their loves, and, I am proud, say, that my oc- 
casions have found time to use 'em toward a supply 
of money ; let the request be fifty talents. 

Flaminius. As you have said, my lord. 200 

Flavins. [Aside] Lord Lucius and Lucullus ? hum ! 

Timon. Go you, sir, to the senators — 
Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have 
Deserv'd this hearing — bid 'em send o' the instant 
A thousand talents to me. 

Flavins. I have been bold — 

For that I knew it the most general way — 
To them to use your signet and your name ; 



72 Timon of Athens [Act n 

But they do shake their heads, and I am here 
Xo richer in return. 

Timon. Is 't true ? can 't be ? 

Flavins. They answer, in a joint and corporate 
voice, 210 

That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot 
Do what they would, — are sorry — you are honour- 
able, — 
But yet they could have wish'd — they know not — 
Something hath been amiss — a noble nature 
May catch a wrench — would all were well — 't is 

pity ; — 
And so, intending other serious matters, 
After distasteful looks and these hard fractions, 
With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods 
They froze me into silence. 

Timon. You gods, reward them ! — 

Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows 220 

Have their ingratitude in them hereditary. 
Their blood is cak'd, \ is cold, it seldom flows ; 
'T is lack of kindly warmth they are not kind ; 
And nature, as it grows again toward earth, 
Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy. — 
[To a Servant] Go to Ventidius. — [To Flavius] Prithee, 

be not sad, 
Thou art true and honest ; ingeniously I speak, 
Xo blame belongs to thee. — [To Servant] Ventidius 

lately 
Buried his father, by whose death he 's stepp'd 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 73 

Into a great estate. When he was poor, 230 

Imprison 'd, and in scarcity of friends, 
I clear'd him with five talents. Greet him from me ; 
Bid him suppose some good necessity 
Touches his friend, which craves to be remember'd 
With those five talents. — [Exit Servant.'] [To Flavins] 

That had, give 't these fellows 
To whom 't is instant due. Ne'er speak, or think, 
That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink. 
Flavins. I would I could not think it ! that thought 
is bounty's foe ; 
Being free itself, it thinks all others so. [Exeunt. 






. 



.^:^;'r^^^ 



. 




Athens, the Pnyx 



ACT III 

Scene I. A Room in Lucullus' s House 

Flaminius waiting. Enter a Servant to him 

Servant. I have told my lord of you ; he is coming 

down to you. 

Flaminius. I thank you, sir. 

Enter Lucullus 

Servant. Here 's my lord. 

Lucullus. [Aside] One of Lord Timon's men ? a 

74 



Scene I] Timon of Athens 75 

gift, I warrant. Why, this hits right ; I dreamt of 
a silver basin and ewer to-night. — Flaminius, honest 
Flaminius, you are very respectively welcome, sir. — 
Fill me some wine. — [Exit Servant^ And how 
does that honourable, complete, free-hearted gentle 
man of Athens, thy very bountiful good lord and 
master ? 12 

Flaminius. His health is well, sir. 

Lucullus. I am right glad that his health is well, 
sir ; and what hast thou there under thy cloak, pretty 
Flaminius ? 

Flaminius, Faith, nothing but an empty box, sir, 
which, in my lord's behalf, I come to entreat your 
honour to supply; who, having great and instant 
occasion to use fifty talents, hath sent to your lord- 
ship to furnish him, nothing doubting your present 
assistance therein. 22 

Lucullus. La, la, la, la ! nothing doubting, says 
he ? Alas, good lord ! a noble gentleman 't is, if he 
would not keep so good a house. Many a time and 
often I ha' dined with him, and told him on 't, and 
come again to supper to him, of purpose to have him 
spend less, and yet he would embrace no counsel, 
take no warning by my coming. Every man has 
his fault, and honesty is his ; I ha' told him on % 
but I could ne'er get him from 't. 31 

Re-enter Servant with wine 

Servant. Please your lordship, here is the wine. 



~6 Timon of Athens [Act m 

Lucullus. Flaminius, I have noted thee always 
wise. Here "s to thee. 

Fla Your lordship speaks your pleasure. 

Lucullus. I have observed thee always for a 
towardly prompt spirit — give thee thy due — and 
one that knows what belongs to reason — and canst 
use the time well, if the time use thee well ; good 
parts in thee. — | \Tc Sen .:■::' Ger you gone, sirrah. — 
[Exit Servant^ Draw nearer, honest Flaminius. 
Thy lord 's a bountiful gentleman ; but thou art 
wise, and thou knowest well enough, although thou 
comest to me. that this is no time to lend money, 
especially upon bare friendship, without security. 
Here *s three solidares for thee ; good boy. wink 
at me. and say thou sawest me not. Fare thee 
well. _s 

Flaminius. Is 't possible the world should so much 
differ, 
And we alive that liv'd ? Fly. damned baseness. 
To him that worships thee \ \Th rau ing the money back. 

Lucullus. Ha ! now I see thou art a fool, and fit 
for thy master. \Exit 

Flaminius. May these add to the number that may 
scald thee ! 
Let molten coin be thy damnation. 
Thou disease of a friend, and not himself! 
Has friendship such a faint and milky- heart 
It turns in less than two nights ? O you gods. 
I feel my master's passion I this slave. 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 77 

lI^ c 

Unto his honour, has my lord's meat in him ; 60 

Why should it thrive and turn to nutriment 

When he is turn'd to poison ? 

O, may diseases only work upon 't ! 

And, when he 's sick to death, let not that part of 

nature 
Which my lord paid for be of any power 
To expel sickness, but prolong his hour ! [Exit. 

Scene II. A Public Place 

Enter Lucius, with three Strangers 

Lucius. Who, the Lord Timon ? he is my very 
good friend, and an honourable gentleman. 

1 Stranger. We know him for no less, though we 
are but strangers to him. But I can tell you one 
thing, my lord, and which I hear from common 
rumours : now Lord Timon 's happy hours are done 
and past, and his estate shrinks from him. 

Lucius. Fie, no, do not believe it ; he cannot 
want for money. 9 

2 Stranger. But believe you this, my lord, that, 
not long ago, one of his men was with the Lord 
Lucullus to borrow so many talents, nay, urged ex- 
tremely for \ and showed what necessity belonged 
to 't, and yet was denied. 

Lucius. How ! 

2 Stranger. I tell you, denied, my lord. 

Lucius. What a strange case was that ! now, be- 



78 Timon of Athens [Act ill 

fore the gods. I am ashamed on 't. Denied that 
honourable man 1 there was very little honour 
showed in "t. For my own part. I must needs con- 
fess. I have received some small kindnesses from 
him, as money, plate, jewels, and such-like trifles, 
nothing comparing to his : yet, had he mistook him 
and sent to me. I should ne'er have denied his 
occasion so many talents. 25 

Enter Servilius 

Servilius. See, by good hap, yonder 's my lord ; 
I have sweat to see his honour. — [To Lucius'] My 
honoured lord, — 

Lucius. Servilius ! you are kindly met, sir. — 
Fare thee well; commend me to thy honourable 
virtuous lord, my very exquisite friend. 31 

Servilius. May it please your honour, my lord 
hath sent — 

Lucius. Ha ! what has he sent ? I am so much 
endeared to that lord : he 's ever sending. How 
shall I thank him, thinkest thou ? And what has he 
sent now ? 

Servilius. Has only sent his present occasion now, 
my lord, requesting your lordship to supply his in- 
stant use with so many talents. 40 

Lucius. I know his lordship is but merry with me ; 
He cannot want fifty-five hundred talents. 

Servilius. But in the mean time he wants less, my 
lord. 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 79 

If his occasion were not virtuous, 
I should not urge it half so faithfully. 

Lucius, Dost thou speak seriously, Servilius ? 

Servilius. Upon my soul, 't is true, sir. 47 

Lucius. What a wicked beast was I to disfurnish 
myself against such a good time, when I might ha' 
shown myself honourable ! how unluckily it hap- 
pened that I should purchase the day before for a 
little part, and undo a great deal of honour ! Ser- 
vilius, now, before the gods, I am not able to do, — 
the more beast, I say. — I was sending to use Lord 
Timon myself, these gentlemen can witness ; but I 
would not, for the wealth of Athens, I had done 't 
now. Commend me bountifully to his good lord- 
ship, and I hope his honour will conceive the fairest 
of me, because I have no power to be kind ; and tell 
him this from me, I count it one of my greatest 
afflictions, say, that I cannot pleasure such an hon- 
ourable gentleman. Good Servilius, will you be- 
friend me so far as to use mine own words to him ? 63 

Servilius. Yes, sir, I shall. 

Lucius. I '11 look you out a good turn, Servilius. — 

[Exit Servilius. 
True, as you said, Timon is shrunk indeed ; 
And he that 's once denied will hardly speed. [Exit. 

1 Stranger. Do you observe this, Hostilius ? 

2 Stranger. Ay, too well. 
1 Stranger. Why, this is the world's soul ; and just 

of the same piece 



80 Timon of Athens [Act in 

Is every flatterer's spirit. Who can call him 70 

His friend that dips in the same dish ? for, in 

My knowing, Timon has been this lord's father, 

And kept his credit with his purse, 

Supported his estate. Nay, Timon's money 

Has paid his men their wages ; he ne'er drinks 

But Timon's silver treads upon his lip ; 

And yet — O, see the monstrousness of man 

When he looks out in an ungrateful shape ! — 

He does deny him, in respect of his, 

What charitable men afford to beggars. 80 

3 Stranger. Religion groans at it. 

1 Stranger. For mine own part, 

I never tasted Timon in my life, 
Xor came any of his bounties over me, 
To mark me for his friend, yet, I protest, 
For his right noble mind, illustrious virtue, 
And honourable carriage, 
Had his necessity made use of me, 
I would have put my wealth into donation, 
And the best half should have return 'd to him, 
So much I love his heart ; but, I perceive, 90 

Men must learn now with pity to dispense, 
For policy sits above conscience. [Exeunt. 

Scene III. A Room in Sempronius^ s House 
Enter Sempronius, and a Servant of Timon's 
Sempronius. Must he needs trouble me in % — hum ! 
— 'bove all others ? 



Scene Hi] Timon of Athens 8 1 

He might have tried Lord Lucius or Lucullus, 
And now Ventidius is wealthy too 
Whom he redeem 'd from prison ; all these 
Owe their estates unto him. 

Servant My lord, 

They have all been touch'd and found base metal, for 
They have all denied him. 

Sempronius. How ! have they denied him ? 

Has Ventidius and Lucullus denied him ? 
And does he send to me ? Three ? hum ! 
It shows but little love or judgment in him ; 10 

Must I be his refuge ? His friends, like physicians, 
Thrice give him over ; must I take the cure upon me ? 
Has much disgrac'd me in 't ; I 'm angry at him, 
That might have known my place. I see no sense for 't. 
But his occasions might have woo'd me first, 
For, in my conscience, I was the first man 
That e'er received gift from him ; 
And does he think so backwardly of me now 
That I '11 requite it last ? No ; 

So I may prove an argument of laughter 20 

To the rest, and 'mongst lords be thought a fool. 
I 'd rather than the worth of thrice the sum 
Had sent to me first, but for my mind's sake ; 
I 'd such a courage to do him good. But now return, 
And with their faint reply this answer join : 
Who bates mine honour shall not know my coin. 

{Exit 

Servant. Excellent ! Your lordship 's a goodly 

TIMON OF ATHENS — 6 



82 Timon of Athens [Act ill 

villain. The devil knew not what he did when he 

made man politic ; he crossed himself by % and I 

cannot think but, in the end, the villanies of man 

will set him clear. How fairly this lord strives to 

appear foul 1 takes virtuous copies to be wicked, like 

those that under hot ardent zeal would set whole 

realms on fire ; 34 

Of such a nature is his politic love ! 

This was my lord's best hope ; now all are fled, 

Save the gods only. Now his friends are dead, 

Doors that were ne'er acquainted with their wards 

Many a bounteous year must be employed 

Now to guard sure their master. 

And this is all a liberal course allows ; 

Who cannot keep his wealth must keep his house. 

[Exit. 

Scene IV. A Hall in Union's House 

Enter two Servants of Varro, and the Servant of 
Lucius, meeting Titus, Hortensius, and other Ser- 
vants of Timon's credito?s, waiting his coming out 

i Servant of Varro. Well met ; good morrow, Titus 
and Hortensius. 

Titus. The like to you, kind Varro. 

Hortensius. Lucius ! 

What, do we meet together ? 

Servant of Lucius. Ay. and I think 

One business does command us all ; for mine 
Is money. 



Scene IV] Timon of Athens 83 

Titus. So is theirs and ours. 

Enter Philotus 

Servant of Lucius. And Sir Philotus too ! 

Philotus. Good clay at once. 

Servant of Lucius. Welcome, good brother. 

What do you think the hour ? 

Philotus. Labouring for nine. 

Servant of Lucius. So much ? 

Philotus. Is not my lord seen yet ? 

Servant of Lucius. Not yet. 

Philotus. I wonder on 't ; he was wont to shine at 
seven. 10 

Servant of Lucius. Ay, but the days are wax'd shorter 
with him. 
You must consider that a prodigal course 
Is like the sun's, but not like his recoverable. 
I fear 't is deepest winter in Lord Timon 's purse ; 
That is, one may reach deep enough and yet 
Find little. 

Philotus. I am of your fear for that. 

Titus. I '11 show you how to observe a strange event. 
Your lord sends now for money. 

Hortensius. Most true, he does. 

Titus. And he wears jewels now of Timon 's gift, 
For which I wait for money. 20 

Hortensius. It is against my heart. 

Servant of Lucius. Mark, how strange it shows 

Timon in this should pay more than he owes ! 



84 Timon of Athens [Act ill 

And e'en as if your lord should wear rich jewels. 
And send for money for 'em. 

Hortensius. I 'm weary of this charge, the gods can 
witness. 
I know my lord hath spent of Timon's wealth, 
And now ingratitude makes it worse than stealth. 
1 Servant of Varro. Yes, mine 's three thousand 

crowns ; what 's yours ? 
Servant of Lucius. Five thousand mine. 
1 Servant of Varro. 'T is much deep; and it should 
seem by the sum 30 

Your master's confidence was above mine, 
Else, surely, his had equall'd. 

Enter Flaminius 

Titus. One of Lord Timon's men. 

Servant of Lucius. Flaminius ! Sir, a word : pray, 
is my lord ready to come forth ? 

Flaminius. Xo, indeed, he is not. 

Titus. We attend his lordship ; pray, signify so 
much. 

Flaminius. I need not tell him that ; he knows 
you are too diligent. [Fxit. 

Enter Flavius in a cloak, muffled 

Servant of Lucius. Ha ! is not that his steward 
muffled so ? 41 

He goes away in a cloud ; call him, call him. 
Titus. Do vou hear, sir ? 



Scene IV] Timon of Athens 85 

2 Servant of Varro. By your leave, sir, — 

Flavins. What do ye ask of me, my friends ? 

Titus. We wait for certain money here, sir. 

Flavins. Ay, 

If money were as certain as your waiting, 
'T were sure enough. 

Why then preferred you not your sums and bills 
When your false masters eat of my lord's meat ? 50 

Then they could smile and fawn upon his debts, 
And take down the interest into their gluttonous maws. 
You do yourselves but wrong to stir me up ; 
Let me pass quietly. 

Believe % my lord and I have made an end 
I have no more to reckon, he to spend. 

Servant of Lucius. Ay, but this answer will not 
serve. 

Flavins. If 't will not serve, 't is not so base as you ; 
For you serve knaves. [Exit. 

1 Servant of Varro. How ! what does his cash- 
iered worship mutter ? 61 

2 Servant of Varro. No matter what ; he 's poor, 
and that 's revenge enough. Who can speak broader 
than he that has no house to put his head in? such 
may rail against great buildings. 

Enter Servilius 

Titus. O, here 's Servilius ; now we shall know 
some answer. 

Servilius. If I might beseech you, gentlemen, to 



86 Timon of Athens [Act in 

repair some other hour, I should derive much from 
't ; for, take ? t of my soul, my lord leans wondrously 
to discontent. His comfortable temper has forsook 
him ; he ? s much out of health and keeps his chamber. 

Servant of 'Lucius. Many do keep their chambers are 
not sick; 72 

And, if it be so far beyond his health, 
Methinks he should the sooner pay his debts 
And make a clear way to the gods. 

Servilius. Good gods ! 

Titus. We cannot take this for answer, sir. 

Flaminius. [ Within] Servilius, help ! — My lord ! my 
lord! 

Enter Timon, in a rage ; Flaminius following 

Timon. What, are my doors opposed against my pas- 
sage ? 
Have I been ever free, and must my house 80 

Be my retentive enemy, my gaol ? 
The place which I have feasted, does it now, 
Like all mankind, show me an iron heart ? 

Servant of Lucius. Put in now, Titus. 

Titus. My lord, here is my bill. 

Servant of Lucius. Here 's mine. 

Hortensius. And mine, my lord. 

Both Servants of Varro. And ours, my lord. 

Philotus. All our bills. 

Timon. Knock me down with 'em ; cleave me to the 
girdle. 90 



Scene IV] Timon of Athens 87 

Servant of Lucius. Alas, my lord, — 
Timon. Cut my heart in sums. 
Servant of Lucius. Mine, fifty talents. 
Timon. Tell out my blood. 

Servant of Lucius. Five thousand crowns, my lord. 
Timon. Five thousand drops pays that. — What 
yours ? — and yours ? 

1 Servant of Varro. My lord, — 

2 Servant of Varro. My lord, — 98 
Timon. Tear me, take me, and the gods fall upon 

you ! [Exit. 

Hortensius. Faith, I perceive our masters may _ 
throw their caps at their money. These debts may 
well be called desperate ones, for a madman owes 
'em. [Exeunt. 

Re-enter Timon and Flavius 

Timon. They have e'en put my breath from me, the 
slaves. 
Creditors ? devils ! 

Flavius. My dear lord, — 

Timon. What if it should be so ? 

Flavius. My lord, — 

Timon. I '11 have it so. My steward ! 

Flavius. Here, my lord. no 

Timon. So fitly? Go, bid all my friends again, 
Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius, — all. 
I '11 once more feast the rascals. 

Flavius. O my lord, 



88 Timon of Athens [Act m 

You only speak from your distracted soul ; 
There is not so much left to furnish out 
A moderate table. 

Timon. Be 't not in thy care ; go, 

I charge thee, invite them all. Let in the tide 
Of knaves once more ; my cook and I '11 provide. 

[Exeunt 

Scene V. The Senate-house 
The Senate sitting 

i Senator. My lord, you have my voice to it: the 
fault 's 
Bloody ; 't is necessary he should die. 
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy. 

2 Senator. Most true ; the law shall bruise him. 

Enter Alcibiades, with Attendants 

Alcibiades. Honour, health, and compassion to the 
senate ! 

i Senator. Now, captain ? 

Alcibiades. I am an humble suitor to your virtues ; 
For pity is the virtue of the law, 
And none but tyrants use it cruelly. 
It pleases time and fortune to lie heavy io 

Upon a friend of mine, who in hot blood 
Hath stepp'd into the law, which is past depth 
To those that without heed do plunge into 't. 
He is a man, setting his fate aside, 
Of comely virtues ; 



Scene V] Timon of Athens 89 

Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice — 

An honour in him which buys out his fault — 

But with a noble fury and fair spirit, 

Seeing his reputation touch 'd to death, 

He did oppose his foe, 20 

And with such sober and unnoted passion 

He did behave his anger, ere 't was spent, 

As if he had but prov'd an argument. 

1 Senator. You undergo too strict a paradox, 
Striving to make an ugly deed look fair. 
Your words have took such pains as if they labour'd 
To bring manslaughter into form and set quarrelling 
Upon the head of valour, which indeed 
Is valour misbegot, and came into the world 
When sects and factions were newly born. 30 

He 's truly valiant that can wisely suffer 
The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs 
His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly, 
And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart, 
To bring it into danger. 
If wrongs be evils and enforce us kill, 
What folly 't is to hazard life for ill ! 

Alcibiades. My lord, — 

1 Senator. You cannot make gross sins look clear ; 
To revenge is no valour, but to bear. 

Alcibiades. My lords, then, under favour, pardon 
me, 40 

If I speak like a captain. 
Why do fond men expose themselves to battle, 



90 Timon of Athens [Act in 

And not endure all threats ? sleep upon % 

And let the foes quietly cut their throats, 

Without repugnancy ? If there be 

Such valour in the bearing, what make we 

Abroad ? why, then, women are more valiant 

That stay at home, if bearing carry it, 

And the ass more captain than the lion, the felon 

Loaden with irons wiser than the judge, 50 

If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords, 

As you are great, be pitifully good ! 

Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood ? 

To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust ; 

But, in defence, by mercy, 't is most just. 

To be in anger is impiety ; 

But who is man that is not angry ? 

Weigh but the crime with this. 

2 Senator. You breathe in vain. 

Alcibiades. In vain ! his service done 

At Lacedaemon and Byzantium 60 

Were a sufficient briber for his life. 

1 Senator. W T hat 's that ? 

Alcibiades. I say, my lords, he has done fair service 
And slain in fight many of your enemies. 
How full of valour did he bear himself 
In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds ! 

2 Senator. He has made too much plenty with 'em. 
He 's a sworn rioter ; he has a sin that often 
Drowns him and takes his valour prisoner. 

If there were no foes, that were enough 70 



Scene V] Timon of Athens 9 1 

To overcome him ; in that beastly fury- 
He has been known to commit outrages 
And cherish factions. 'T is inferr'd to us, 
His days are foul and his drink dangerous. 

1 Senator. He dies. 

Alcibiades. Hard fate ! he might have died in war. 
My lords, if not for any parts in him — 
Though his right arm might purchase his own time 
And be in debt to none — yet, more to move you, 
Take my deserts to his, and join 'em both ; 
And, for I know your reverend ages love 80 

Security, I '11 pawn my victories, all 
My honours to you, upon his good returns. 
If by this crime he owes the law his life, 
Why, let the war receive 't in valiant gore ; 
For law is strict, and war is nothing more. 

1 Senator. We are for law ; he dies. Urge it no 

more, 
On height of our displeasure. Friend or brother, 
He forfeits his own blood that spills another. 

Alcibiades. Must it be so? it must not be. My 
lords, 
I do beseech you, know me. 9° 

2 Senator. How ! 

Alcibiades. Call me to your remembrances. 

3 Senator. What ! 
Alcibiades. I cannot think but your age has forgot 

me ; 
It could not else be I should prove so base 



92 Timon of Athens [Act ill 

To sue and be denied such common grace. 
My wounds ache at you. 

i Senator. Do you dare our anger ? 

'T is in few words, but spacious in effect : 
We banish thee for ever. 

Alcibiades. Banish me ! 

Banish your dotage ; banish usury, 
That makes the senate ugly. 

Senator. If, after two days' shine, Athens contain 

thee, ioo 

Attend our weightier judgment. And, not to swell our 

spirit, 
He shall be executed presently. \Exeunt Senators. 

Alcibiades. Now the gods keep you old enough that 

you may live 
Only in bone, that none may look on you ! 
I 'm worse than mad ; I have kept back their foes, 
While they have told their money and let out 
Their coin upon large interest, I myself 
Rich only in large hurts. All those for this? 
Is this the balsam that the usuring senate 
Pours into captains' wounds ? Banishment! no 

It comes not ill ; I hate not to be banish'd ; 
It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury, 
That I may strike at Athens. I '11 cheer up 
My discontented troops and lay for hearts. 
'T is honour with most lands to be at odds ; 
Soldiers should brook as little wrongs as gods. [Exit. 



Scene VI] Timon of Athens 93 

Scene VI. A Banque ting-room in Timon's House 

Music. Tables set out: Servants attending. Enter 
divers Lords, Senators, and others ', at several doors 

1 Lord. The good time of day to you, sir. 

2 Lord. I also wish it to you. I think this honour- 
able lord did but try us this other day. 

1 Lord. Upon that were my thoughts tiring when 
we encountered ; I hope it is not so low with him as 
he made it seem in the trial of his several friends. 

2 Lord. It should not be, by the persuasion of his 
new feasting. 

1 Lord. I should think so ; he hath sent me an 
earnest inviting, which many my near occasions did 
urge me to put off, but he hath conjured me beyond 
them and I must needs appear. 12 

2 Lord. In like manner was I in debt to my im- 
portunate business, but he would not hear my excuse. 
I am sorry, when he sent to borrow of me, that my 
provision was out. 

2 Lord. I am sick of that grief too, as I understand 
how all things go. 

2 Lord. Every man here 's so. What would he 
have borrowed of you ? 20 

1 Lord. A thousand pieces. 

2 Lord. A thousand pieces ! 

1 Lord. What of you? 

2 Lord. He sent to me, sir, — Here he comes. 



94 Timon of Athens [Act in 

Enter Timon and Attendants 

Timon. With all my heart, gentlemen both ; and 
how fare you? 

i Lord. Ever at the best, hearing well of your 
lordship. 

2 Lord. The swallow follows not summer more 
willing than we your lordship. 30 

Timon. [Aside] Nor more willingly leaves winter ; 
such summer-birds are men. — Gentlemen, our din- 
ner will not recompense this long stay. Feast your 
ears with the music awhile, if they will fare so 
harshly o' the trumpet's sound ; we shall to 't pres- 
ently. 

1 Lord. I hope it remains not unkindly with your 
lordship that I returned you an empty messenger. 

Timon. O, sir, let it not trouble you. 

2 Lord. My noble lord, — 40 
Timon. Ah, my good friend, what cheer? 

2 Lord. My most honourable lord, I am e'en sick 
of shame that, when your lordship this other day 
sent to me, I was so unfortunate a beggar. 

Timon. Think not on % sir. 

2 Lord. If you had sent but two hours before — 

Timon. Let it not cumber your better remem- 
brance. — \_TJie banquet brought in.] Come, bring in 
all together. 

2 Lord. All covered dishes ! 50 

1 Lord. Royal cheer, I warrant you 1 



Scene vi] Timon of Athens 95 

3 Lord, Doubt not that, if money and the season 
can yield it. 

1 Lord. How do you ? What 's the news ? 
3 Lord. Alcibiades is banished ; hear you of it ? 
1 and 2 Lord. Alcibiades banished ! 
3 Lord. 'T is so, be sure of it. 

1 Lord. How 7 ? how? 

2 Lord. I pray you, upon what ? 

Timon. My worthy friends, will you draw near ? 60 

3 Lord. I '11 tell you more anon. Here 's a noble 
feast toward. 

2 Lord. This is the old man still. 

3 Lord. Will 't hold ? will 't hold ? 

2 Lord. It does ; but time will — and so — 

3 Lord. I do conceive. 

Timon. Each man to his stool, with that spur as 
he would to the lip of his mistress ; your diet shall 
be in all places alike. Make not a city feast of it, 
to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first 
place ; sit, sit. The gods require our thanks. — 71 

You great benefactors, sprinkle our society with 
thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourselves 
praised ; but reserve still to give, lest your deities 
be despised. Lend to each man enough, that one 
need not lend to another ; for, were your godheads 
to borrow of men, men would forsake the gods. 
Make the meat be beloved more than the man that 
gives it. Let no assembly of twenty be without a 



g6 .won of Athei [Act in 

re of villains ; if there sit twelve women at the 
table, let a dozen of them be — as they are. The 
rest of your fees, gods — the senators of Athens. 
ther with the common lag of people — what is 
amiss in them, you gods, make suitable for destruc- 
For these my present friends, as they are to 
me nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to noth- 
ing are they welcome. — 

Uncover, dogs, and lap. 

[7/;. /;/// of 

What does his lordship mean? 
' :er. I know . 

— May \ ver behold, 

You knot of mouth-friends I smoke and lukewarm water 
ur perfection. This is Timon's last. 
. stuck and spangled with your flatteries. 
Washes it off, and sprinkl 

Your reeking villany. w in their 

fm 
Live loath'd and loi 
Most smiling, smooth, ed para-.. 

Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek be 
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, tin.. 
Cap and kin s, and minute-jack 100 

Oi man and beast the infinite mala 

St you quite o'er I — What, dost thou go? 

take thy physic first — thou too — and thou : — 



Scene VI] Timon of Athens 97 

Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none. — 

[Pelts them with stones, and drives them out 
What, all in motion ? Henceforth be no feast 
Whereat a villain 's not a welcome guest ! 
Burn, house ! sink, Athens ! henceforth hated be 
Of Timon man and all humanity ! [Exit. 

Re-enter the Lords, Senators, etc. 

1 Lord. How now, my lords ! 

2 Lord. Know you the quality of Lord Timon 's 
fury? in 

3 Lord. Push ! did you see my cap ? 

4 Lord. I have lost my gown. 

1 Lord. He 's but a mad lord, and nought but 
humour sways him. He gave me a jewel th' other 
day, and now he has beat it out of my hat ; — did 
you see my jewel ? 

3 Lord. Did you see my cap ? 

2 Lord. Here 't is. 

4 Lord. Here lies my gown. 120 

1 Lord. Let 's make no stay. 

2 Lord. Lord Timon 's mad. 

3 Lord. I feel 't upon my bones. 

4 Lord. One day he gives us diamonds, next day 

stones. [Exeunt, 



TIMON OF ATHENS - 







Walls of Athens — Restored 



ACT IV 

Scene I. Without the Walls of Athens 

Enter Timon 

Timon. Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall, 
That girdlest in those wolves, dive in the earth 
And fence not Athens ! Matrons, turn incontinent I 
Obedience fail in children ! slaves and fools, 
Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench 
And minister in their steads ! to general filths 
Convert o' the instant, green virginity, 
Do 't in your parents' eyes ! bankrupts, hold fast ! 
Rather than render back, out with your knives 

98 



Scene I] Timon of Athens 99 

And cut your trusters' throats! bound servants, steal ! 

Large-handed robbers your grave masters are 11 

And pill by law. Maid, to thy master's bed ; 

Thy mistress is o' the brothel ! Son of sixteen, 

Pluck the lin'd crutch from thy old limping sire, 

With it beat out his brains ! Piety, and fear, 

Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth, 

Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood, 

Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades, 

Degrees, observances, customs, and laws, 

Decline to your confounding contraries 20 

And let confusion live ! Plagues incident to men, 

Your potent and infectious fevers heap 

On Athens, ripe for stroke ! Thou cold sciatica, 

Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt 

As lamely as their manners ! Lust and liberty 

Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth, 

That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive 

And drown themselves in riot ! Itches, blains, 

Sow all the Athenian bosoms, and their crop 

Be general leprosy ! Breath infect breath, 30 

That their society, as their friendship, may 

Be merely poison ! Nothing I '11 bear from thee 

But nakedness, thou detestable town ! 

Take thou that too, with multiplying bans ! 

Timon will to the woods, where he shall find 

The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind. I 

The gods confound — hear me, you good gods all — 

The Athenians both within and out that wall ! 



icc Timon of Athens [Act IV 

i grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow 
Tc the whole race of mankind, high and low! 
en. 

Scene II. Athens. A Room in Timoris House. 
Enter :h two or three Servants 

i Servant Beai you. master steward, where 's our 

:::.z>te: ? 
Are we undone ? cast off ? nothing remaining ? 

Flavins. Alack, my fellows, what should I say to 
you ? 
Let me be recorded by the righteous gods, 
I am as poor as you. 

i & Such a house broke ! 

So noble a master fallen ! All gone ! and not 
One friend to take his fortune by the arm 
And go along with him ! 

i Savant. e do turn our backs 

From our companion thrown into his gra 
So his familiars to his buried fortunes u 

Slink all away, leave their false vows with him, 
Like empty purses pick'd ; and his poor self, 
A dedicated beggar to the air. 
With his disease of all-shunnd poverty, 

ks. like contempt, alone. — More of our fellows. 

Enter other Servants 

Flat ::.:. All broken implements of a ruin'd house. 
3 ^ c : . - Yet do our hearts wear Timon 's live: 



Scene II] Timon of Athens 101 

That see I by our faces. We are fellows still, 

Serving alike in sorrow. Leak'd is our bark, 

An3 we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck, 20 

Hearing the surges threat ; we must all part 

Into this sea of air. 

Flavins. Good fellows all, 

The latest of my wealth I '11 share amongst you. 
Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake, 
Let 's yet be fellows ; let 's shake our heads, and say, 
As 't were a knell unto our master's fortunes, 
' We have seen better days.' Let each take some ; 
Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word more ; 
Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor. — 

[Servants embrace, and part several ways. 
O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us ! 30 

Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt, 
Since riches point to misery and contempt ? 
Who would be so mock'd with glory ? or to live 
But in a dream of friendship ? 
To have his pomp and all that state compounds 
But only painted, like his varnish'd friends? 
Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart, 
Undone by goodness ! Strange, unusual blood, 
When man's worst sin is he does too much good I 
Who, then, dares to be half so kind again ? 40 

For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men. 
My dearest lord, — bless'd, to be most accurs'd, 
Rich, only to be wretched, — thy great fortunes 
Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord I 



102 Timon of Athens [Act iv 

He 's flnng in rage from this ingrateful seat 

Of monstrous friends, nor has he with him to 

Supply his life, or that which can command it. 

I '11 follow and inquire him out ; 

I '11 ever serve his mind with my best will ; 49 

Whilst I have gold, F 11 be his steward still. [Exit 

Scene III. Woods and Cave, near the Sea-shore 

Enter Timon, from the cave 

Timon. O blessed breeding sun, draw from the 
earth 
Rotten humidity ; below thy sister's orb 
Infect the air ! Twinn'd brothers of one womb, 
Whose procreation, residence, and birth, 
Scarce is dividant, — touch them with several fortunes, 
The greater scorns the lesser ; not nature, 
To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune 
But by contempt of nature. 
Raise me this beggar, and deny 't that lord ; 
The senator shall bear contempt hereditary, 10 

The beggar native honour. 
It is the pasture lards the rother's sides, 
The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares, 
In purity of manhood stand upright 
And say ' This man 's a flatterer ? ' If one be, 
So are they all, for every grise of fortune 
Is smooth'd by that below ; the learned pate 
Ducks to the golden fool. All is oblique ; 



Scene ill] Timon of Athens 103 

There 's nothing level in our cursed natures 

But direct villany. Therefore, be abhorr'd 20 

All feasts, societies, and throngs of men ! 

His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains ; 

Destruction fang mankind ! — Earth, yield me roots ! 

[Digging. 
Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate 
With thy most operant poison ! — What is here ? 
Gold ? yellow, glittering, precious gold ? No, gods, 
I am no idle votarist. Roots, you clear heavens ! 
Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair, 
Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant. 
Ha, you gods ! why this ? what this, you gods ? Why, 

this 30 

Will lug your priests and servants from your sides, 
Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads ; 
This yellow slave 

Will knit and break religions, bless the accurs'd, 
Make the hoar leprosy ador'd, place thieves 
And give them title, knee, and approbation 
With senators on the bench. This is it 
That makes the wappen'd widow wed again ; 
She, whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores 
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices 40 
To the April day again. — Come, damned earth, 
Thou common whore of mankind, that put'st odds 
Among the rout of nations, I will make thee 
Do thy right nature. — {March afar off.'] Ha ! a drum ? 

— Thou 'rt quick, 



104 Timon of Athens [Act IV 

But yet I '11 bury thee ; thou 'It go, strong thief, 

When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand. — 

Nay, stay thou out for earnest. {Keeping some gold. 

Enter Alcibiades, with drwn and fife, in warlike 
manner; Phrynia #/z^Timandra 

Alcibiades. What art thou there ? speak. 

Timon. A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy 
heart 
For showing me again the eyes of man ! 50 

Alcibiades. What is thy name ? Is man so hateful 
to thee 
That art thyself a man ? 

Timon. I am Misanthropos and hate mankind. 
For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, 
That I might love thee something. 

Alcibiades. I know thee well, 

But in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and strange. 

Timon. I know thee too ; and more than that I know 
thee 
I not desire to know. Follow thy drum ; 
With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules. 
Religious canons, civil laws are cruel ; 60 

Then what should war be ? This fell whore of thine 
Hath in her more destruction than thy sword, 
For all her cherubin look. 

Phrynia. Thy lips rot off ! 

Timon. I will not kiss thee ; then the rot returns 
To thine own lips again. 



Scene III] Timon of Athens 105 

Alcibiades. How came the noble Timon to this 
change ? 

Timon. As the moon does, by wanting light to give. 
But then renew I could not, like the moon ; 
There were no suns to borrow of. 

Alcibiades. Noble Timon, 

What friendship may I do thee ? 

Timon. None, but to 70 

Maintain my opinion. 

Alcibiades. What is it, Timon ? 

Timon. Promise me friendship, but perform 
none; if thou wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, 
for thou art a man ! if thou dost perform, confound 
thee, for thou art a man ! 

Alcibiades. I have heard in some sort of thy miseries. 

Timon. Thou saw'st them when I had prosperity. 

Alcibiades. I see them now ; then was a blessed time. 

Timon. As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots. 

Timandra. Is this the Athenian minion, whom the 
world 80 

Voic'd so regardfully ? 

Timon. Art thou Timandra ? 

Timandra. Yes. 

Timon. Be a whore still ; they love thee not that use 
thee ; 
Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust. 
Make use of thy salt hours ; season the slaves 
For tubs and baths, bring down rose-cheeked youth 
To the tub-fast and the diet. 



io6 Timon of Athens [Act iv 

Timandra. Hang thee, monster ! 

Alcibiades. Pardon him, sweet Timandra ; for his 
wits 
Are drown 'd and lost in his calamities. — 
I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, 9 o 

The want whereof doth daily make revolt 
In my penurious band. I have heard, and griev'd, 
How cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth, 
Forgetting thy great deeds, when neighbour states, 
But for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them, — 

Timon. I prithee, beat thy drum, and get thee gone. 

Alcibiades. I am thy friend and pity thee, dear 
Timon. 

Timon. How dost thou pity him whom thou dost 
trouble ? 
I had rather be alone. 

Alcibiades. Why, fare thee well. 

Here is some gold for thee. 

Timon. Keep it, I cannot eat it. 

Alcibiades. When I have laid proud Athens on a 
heap, — ioi 

Timon. Warr'st thou 'gainst Athens ? 

Alcibiades. Ay, Timon, and have cause. 

Timon. The gods confound them all in thy conquest, 
And thee after when thou hast conquer'd ! 

Alcibiades. Why me, Timon ? 

Timon. That, by killing of villains, 

Thou wast born to conquer my country. 
Put up thy gold ; go on, — here 's gold, — go on. 



Scene Hi] Timon of Athens 107 

Be as a planetary plague, when Jove 

Will o'er some high- vie 'd city hang his poison 

In the sick air ; let not thy sword skip one. no 

Pity not honour'd age for his white beard ; 

He is an usurer. Strike me the counterfeit matron ; 

It is her habit only that is honest, 

Herself 's a bawd. Let not the virgin's cheek 

Make soft thy trenchant sword ; for those milk-paps, 

That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes, 

Are not within the leaf of pity writ, 

But set them down horrible traitors. Spare not the 

babe, 
Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy ; 
Think it a bastard, whom the oracle 120 

Hath doubtfully pronoune'd thy throat shall cut, 
And mince it sans remorse. Swear against objects ; 
Put armour on thine ears and on thine eyes, 
Whose proof, nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes, 
Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding, 
Shall pierce a jot. There 's gold to pay thy soldiers ; 
Make large confusion, and, thy fury spent, 
Confounded be thyself ! Speak not, be gone. 

Alcibiades. Hast thou gold yet ? I '11 take the gold 

thou giv'st me, 
Not all thy counsel. 130 

Ti?non. Dost thou or dost thou not, heaven's curse 

upon thee ! 
Phrynia and Timandra. Give us some gold, good 

Timon ; hast thou more ? 



108 Timon of Athens [Act iv 

Timon. Enough to make a whore forswear her trade. 
And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up. you sluts, 
Your aprons mountant ; you are not oathable, — 
Although. I know, you '11 swear, terribly swear 
Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues 
The immortal gods that hear you, — spare your oaths, 
I '11 trust to your conditions. Be whores still ; 
And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you, 140 
Be strong in whore, allure him. burn him up ; 
Let your close fire predominate his smoke, 
And be no turncoats. Yet may your pains, six months. 
Be quite contrary : and thatch your poor thin roofs 
With burthens of the dead, — some that were hang'd. 
No matter; — wear them, betray with them. Whore 

still ; 
Paint till a horse may mire upon your face. 
A pox of wrinkles ! 

Phrynia and Timandra. Well, more gold. — What 
then ? 
Believe "t, that we '11 do any thing for gold. 150 

Timon. Consumptions sow 
In hollow bones of man ; strike their sharp shins, 
And mar men's spurring. Crack the lawyer's voice, 
That he may never more false title plead, 
Xor sound his quillets shrilly. Hoar the flamen, 
That scolds against the quality of flesh 
And not believes himself. Down with the nose, 
Down with it flat ; take the bridge quite away 
Of him that, his particular to foresee, 



Scene Hi] Timon of Athens 109 

Smells from the general weal. Make curl'd-pate 
ruffians bald ; 160 

And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war 
Derive some pain from you. Plague all, 
That your activity may defeat and quell 
The source of all erection. — There 's more gold ; 
Do you damn others, and let this damn you, 
And ditches grave you all ! 

Phrynia and Timandra. More counsel with more 

money, bounteous Timon. 
Timon. More whore, more mischief first ; I have 

given you earnest. 
Alcibiades. Strike up the drum towards Athens ! — 
Farewell, Timon. 
If I thrive well, I '11 visit thee again. 170 

Timon. If I hope well, I '11 never see thee more. 
Alcibiades. I never did thee harm. 
Timon. Yes, thou spok'st well of me. 
Alcibiades. CalPst thou that harm ? 

Timon. Men daily find it. Get thee away, and take 
Thy beagles with thee. 

Alcibiades. We but offend him. — Strike ! 

[Drum beats. Exeunt Alcibiades, Phrynia, 
and Timandra. 
Timon. That nature, being sick of man's unkindness, 
Should yet be hungry ! — Common mother, thou, 

[Digging. 
Whose womb un measurable, and infinite breast, 
Teems and feeds all : whose selfsame mettle, 



no Timon of Athens [Act IV 

Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff 'd, 180 

Engenders the black toad and adder blue, 

The gilded newt and eyeless venom'd worm, 

With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven 

Whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine ; 

Yield him who all thy human sons doth hate, 

From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root ! 

Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb, 

Let it no more bring out ingrateful man ! 

Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears ; 

Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face 190 

Hath to the marbled mansion all above 

Never presented ! — O, a root, — dear thanks ! — 

Dry up thy marrowy vines and plough-torn leas, 

Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts 

And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind, 

That from it all consideration slips ! — 

Enter Apemantus 

More man ? plague, plague ! 

Apemantus. I was directed hither ; men report 
Thou dost affect my manners and dost use them. 

Timon. 'T is, then, because thou dost not keep a dog, 
Whom I would imitate. Consumption catch thee ! 201 

Apemantus. This is in thee a nature but infected, 
A poor unmanly melancholy sprung 
From change of fortune. Why this spade ? this place ? 
This slave-like habit ? and these looks of care ? 
Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft, 



Scene ill] Timon of Athens 1 1 1 

Hug their diseased perfumes, and have forgot 
That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods 
By putting on the cunning of a carper. 
Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive 
By that which has undone thee ; hinge thy knee, 
And let his very breath, whom thou 'It observe, 
Blow off thy cap ; praise his most vicious strain 
And call it excellent. Thou w T ast told thus ; 
Thou gav'st thine ears like tapsters that bid welcome 
To knaves and all approachers. 'T is most just 
That thou turn rascal ; hadst thou wealth again, 
Rascals should have 't. Do not assume my likeness. 

Timon. Were I like thee, I 'd throw away myself. 

Apernantus. Thou hast cast away thyself, being like 
thyself ; 220 

A madman so long, now a fool. What, think'st 
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain, 
Will put thy shirt on warm ? will these moss'd trees, 
That have outliv'd the eagle, page thy heels 
And skip where thou point'st out ? will the cold brook, 
Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste, 
To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit ? Call the creatures 
Whose naked natures live in all the spite 
Of wreakful heaven, whose bare unhoused trunks, 
To the conflicting elements expos'd, 230 

Answer mere nature ; bid them flatter thee ; 
O, thou shalt find — 

Timon. A fool of thee. Depart. 

Apernantus. I love thee better now than e'er I did. 



H2 Timon of Athens [Act IV 

Timon. I hate thee worse. 

Apemantus. Why ? 

Timon. Thou flatter'st misery. 

Apemantus. I flatter not, but say thou art a caitiff. 

Timon. Why dost thou seek me out ? 

Apemantus. To vex thee. 

Timon. Always a villain's office or a fool's. 
Dost please thyself in 't ? 

Apemantus. Ay. 

Timon. What ! a knave too ? 

Ape?na?itus. If thou didst put this sour-cold habit on 
To castigate thy pride, 't were well, but thou 240 

Dost it enforcedly ; thou 'dst courtier be again, 
Wert thou not beggar. Willing misery 
Outlives incertain pomp, is crown 'd before : 
The one is filling still, never complete ; 
The other, at high wish. Best state, contentless, 
Hath a distracted and most wretched being, 
Worse than the worst, content. 
Thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable. 

Timon. Not by his breath that is more miserable. 
Thou art a slave whom Fortune's tender arm 250 

With favour never clasp'd, but bred a dog. 
Hadst thou, like us from our first swath, proceeded 
The sweet degrees that this brief world affords 
To such as may the passive drugs of it 
Freely command, thou wouldst have plung'd thyself 
In general riot, melted down thy youth 
In different beds of lust, and never learn'd 



Scene ill] Timon of Athens 113 

The icy precepts of respect, but followed 

The sugar'd game before thee. But myself, 

Who had the world as my confectionary, 260 

The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts of men 

At duty, more than I could frame employment, 

That numberless upon me stuck as leaves 

Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush 

Fell from their boughs and left me open, bare 

For every storm that blows, — I, to bear this, 

That never knew but better, is some burden ; 

Thy nature did commence in sufferance, time 

Hath made thee hard in 't. Why shouldst thou hate 

men ? 
They never flatter'd thee ; what hast thou given ? 270 
If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag, 
Must be thy subject, who in spite put stuff 
To some she beggar and compounded thee 
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence, be gone ! 
If thou hadst not been born the worst of men, 
Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer. 

Apemantus. Art thou proud yet ? 

Timon, Ay, that I am not thee. 

Apemantus. I, that I was 

No prodigal. 

Timon. I, that I am one now ; 

Were all the wealth I have shut up in thee, 
I'd give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone. 280 

That the whole life of Athens were in this 1 
Thus would I eat it. [Eating a root. 

TIMON OF ATHENS — 8 



H4 Timon of Athens [Act IV 

Apemantus. v Here ; I wi{l mend thy feast. 

[ Offering him a root. 

Timon. First mend my company, take away thyself. 

Apemantus. So I shall mend mine own, by the lack 
of thine. 

Timon. 'T is not well mended so, it is but botclrd ; 
If not, I would it were. 

Apemantus. What wouldst thou have to Athens ? 

Timon. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt, 
Tell them there I have gold ; look, so I have. 

Apemantus. Here is no use for gold. 

Timon. The best and truest ; 

For here it sleeps and does no hired harm. 291 

Ape??ia?itus. Where liest o' nights, Timon ? 

Timon. Under that 's above me. 

Where feed'st thou o' days, Apemantus ? 

Apemantus . Where my stomach finds meat, or, 
rather, where I eat it. 

Timon. Would poison were obedient and knew my 
mind ! 

Apemantus. Where wouldst thou send it ? 

Timon. To sauce thy dishes. 298 

Apeniantus. The middle of humanity thou never 
knewest, but the extremity of both ends. When thou 
wast in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee 
for too much curiosity ; in thy rags thou knowest 
none, but art despised for the contrary. There ? s a 
medlar for thee, eat it. 

Timon. On what I hate I feed not. 



Scene ill] Timon of Athens 1 1 5 

Apemantus. Dost hate a medlar ? 

Timon. Ay, though it look like thee. 307 

Apetnantus. An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, 
thou shouldst have loved thyself better now. What 
man didst thou ever know un thrift that was beloved 
after his means ? 

Timon. Who, without those means thou talkest of, 
didst thou ever know beloved ? 

Apetnantus. Myself. 

Timon. I understand thee ; thou hadst some 
means to keep a dog. 

Apemantus. What things in the world canst thou 
nearest compare to thy flatterers ? 318 

Timon. Women nearest ; but men, men are the 
things themselves. What wouldst thou do with the 
world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power? 

Apemantus. Give it to the beasts, to be rid of the 
men. 

Timon. Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the con- 
fusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts ? 

Apemantus. Ay, Timon. 326 

Timon. A beastly ambition, which the gods grant 
thee t' attain to ! If thou wert the lion, the fox would 
beguile thee ; if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat 
thee ; if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect 
thee, when peradventure thou wert accused by the 
ass ; if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment 
thee, and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the 
wolf ; if thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would 



1 1 6 Timon of Athens [Act IV 

afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for 
thy dinner ; wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath 
would confound thee and make thine own self the 
conquest of thy fury ; wert thou a bear, thou wouldst 
be killed by the horse ; wert thou a horse, thou 
wouldst be seized by the leopard ; wert thou a 
leopard, thou wert german to the lion, and the spots 
of thy kindred were jurors on thy life ; all thy safety 
were remotion and thy defence absence. What 
beast couldst thou be, that were not subject to a 
beast ? and what a beast art thou already, that seest 
not thy loss in transformation ! 346 

Apemantus. If thou couldst please me with speak- 
ing to me, thou mightst have hit upon it here ; the 
commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of 
beasts. 

Timon. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou 
art out of the city ? 

Apemantus. Yonder comes a poet and a painter. 
The plague of company light upon thee ! I will fear 
to catch it and give way. When I know not what 
else to do, I '11 see thee again. 

Timon. When there is nothing living but thee, 
thou shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's 
dog than Apemantus. 359 

Apemantus. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive. 

Timon. Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon ! 

Apemantus. A plague on thee ! thou art too bad to 
curse. 



Scene ill] Timon of Athens 117 

Timon. All villains that do stand by thee are pure. 

Apemantus. There is no leprosy but what thou 
speak'st. 

Ti?non. If I name thee. 
I '11 beat thee but I should infect my hands. 

Apemantus. I would my tongue could rot them off ! 

Timon. Away, thou issue of a mangy dog ! 
Choler does kill me that thou art alive ; 
I swoon to see thee. 

Apemantus. Would thou wouldst burst ! 

Timon. Away, 

Thou tedious rogue ! I am sorry I shall lose 371 

A stone by thee. \_Throws a stone at him. 

Apemantus. Beast ! 

Timon. Slave ! 

Apemantus. Toad ! 

Timon. Rogue, rogue, rogue ! 

I am sick of this false world, and will love nought 
But even the mere necessities upon 't. 
Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave. 
Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat 
Thy grave-stone daily ; make thine epitaph, 
That death in me at others' lives may laugh. — 
[ To the gold\ O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce 
Twixt natural son and sire ! thou bright defiler 380 

Of Hymen's purest bed ! thou valiant Mars ! 
Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate wooer, 
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow 
That lies on Dian's lap ! thou visible god, 



1 1 8 Timon of Athens [Act iv 

That solder'st close impossibilities, 

And mak'st them kiss ! that speak'st with every tongue, 

To every purpose ! O thou touch of hearts ! 

Think, thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue 

Set them into confounding odds, that beasts 

May have the world in empire ! 

Apemantus. Would 't were so ! 

But not till I am dead. I '11 say thou 'st gold ; 391 

Thou wilt be throng'd to shortly. 

Timon. Throng'd to ! 

Apemantus. Ay. 

Timon. Thy back, I prithee. 

Apemantus. Live, and love thy misery. 

Timon. Long live so, and so die. — \Exit Apeman- 
tus.^ I am quit. — 
Moe things like men ! Eat, Timon, and abhor them. 

Enter Banditti 

1 Bandit. Where should he have this gold ? It is 
some poor fragment, some slender ort of his re- 
mainder ; the mere want of gold, and the falling-from 

of his friends, drove him into this melancholy. 399 

2 Bandit. It is noised he hath a mass of treasure. 

3 Bandit. Let us make the assay upon him. If he 
care not for 't, he will supply us easily ; if he covet- 
ously reserve it, how shall 's get it ? 

2 Bandit. True ; for he bears it not about him, 
'tis hid. 

1 Bandit. Is not this he ? 



Scene Hi] Timon of Athens 119 

Banditti. Where ? 

2 Bandit. 'T is his description. 

3 Bandit. He ; I know him. 

Banditti. Save thee, Timon. 410 

Timon. Now, thieves ? 

Banditti. Soldiers, not thieves. 

Timon. Both too, and women's sons. 

Banditti. We are not thieves, but men that much do 
want. 

Timon. Your greatest want is, you want much of 
men. 
Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots ; 
Within this mile break forth a hundred springs ; 
The oaks bear mast, the briers scarlet hips ; 
The bounteous housewife, Nature, on each bush 
Lays her full mess before you. Want ! why want ? 420 

1 Bandit. We cannot live on grass, on berries, water, 
As beasts and birds and fishes. 

Timon. Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and 
fishes. 
You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con 
That you are thieves profess'd, that you work not 
In holier shapes ; for there is boundless theft 
In limited professions. Rascal thieves, 
Here's gold. Go, suck the subtle blood o' the grape 
Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth, 
And so scape hanging. Trust not the physician ; 450 
His antidotes are poison, and he slays 
Moe than you rob. Take wealth and lives together ; 



izo Timon of Athens [Act iv 

Do villany. do, since you protest to do 't, 

Like workmen. I '11 example you with thievery: 

The sun 's a thief, and with his great attraction 

Robs the vast sea : the moon 's an arrant thief. 

And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; 

The sea s a thief, whose liquid surge resolves 

The moon into salt tears : the earth *s a thief, 

That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen 440 

From general excrement : each thing 's a thie:. 

Tie laws, your curb and whip, in their rough po 

Have uncheck'd theft. Love not yourselves ; away, 

Rob one another. There 5 more gold. Cut throats; 

All that you meet are thieves. To Athens go, 

k open shops; nothing :av ; v. steal 
But thieves do lose it. Steal no less for this 
I give you ; a::d gold confound you hawse e'er ! 
Amen. 

3 Bandit. Has almost charmed me from my pro- 
fess::::, by persuading me :: it. 451 

1 Bandit. T is in the malice of mankind that he 
thus advises us. not to have us thrive in our mys- 
tery. 

2 Bandit. I hi believe him as a:: eaemy and give 
over my trade. 

1 Bandit. Let us first see peace in Athens ; the 
: time so miserable but a man may be true. 

Exeunt Banditti. 
Enter Flavius 

Eiazius. you gods! 



Scene Hi] Timon of Athens 121 

Is yond despis'd and ruinous man my lord ? 

Full of decay and failing ? O monument 460 

And wonder of good deeds evilly bestow'd ! 

What an alteration of honour 

Has desperate want made ! 

What viler thing upon the earth than friends 

Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends ! 

How rarely does it meet with this time's guise, 

When man was wish'd to love his enemies ! 

Grant I may ever love, and rather woo 

Those that would mischief me than those that do ! 

Has caught me in his eye ; I will present 470 

My honest grief unto him, and, as my lord, 

Still serve him with my life. — My dearest master ! 

Timon. Away ! what art thou ? 

Flavins. Have you forgot me, sir ? 

Timon. Why dost ask that ? I have forgot all men ; 
Then, if thou grant'st thou 'rt a man, I have forgot thee. 

Flavius. An honest poor servant of yours. 

Timon. Then I know thee not. 
I never had honest man about me, I ; all 
I kept were knaves, to serve in meat to villains. 

Flavius. The gods are witness, 480 

Ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief 
For his undone lord than mine eyes for you. 

Timon. What, dost thou weep ? Come nearer. Then 
I love thee, 
Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st 
Flinty mankind, whose eyes do never give 



122 Timon of Athens [Act IV 

But thorough lust and laughter. Phy 's sleeping; 
Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with 
weeping I 

Flavius. I beg of you to know me, good my lord, 
To accept my grief, and whilst this poor wealth lasts 
To entertain me as your steward still. 490 

Timon. Had I a steward 
So true, so just, and now so comfortable ? 
It almost turns my dangerous nature wild. 
Let me behold thy face. Surely, this man 
Was born of woman. — 

Forgive my general and exceptless rashness, 
You perpetual-sober gods ! I do proclaim 
One honest man — mistake me not — but one : 
No more. I pray. — and he *s a steward. 
How fain would I have hated all mankind ! 5:: 

And thou redeem'st thyself ; but all save thee 
I fell with curses. 
Me thinks thou art more honest now than wise, 

by oppressing and betraying me, 
Thou mightst have sooner got another service ; 
For many so arrive at second masters. 
Upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true — 
For I must ever doubt, though ne'er so sure — 
Is not thy kindness subt. 

If not a usuring kindness, and. as rich men deal gifts 
Expecting in return twenty for one? 511 

Fltn ... . No, my most worthy master, in whose breast 
Doubt and suspect, alas, are plac'd too late, 



Scene ill] Timon of Athens 123 

You should have fear'd false times when you did 

feast ; 
Suspect still comes where an estate is least. 
That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love, 
Duty and zeal to your unmatched mind, 
Care of your food and living ; and, believe it, 
My most honour'd lord, 

For any benefit that points to me, 520 

Either in hope or present, I 'd exchange 
For this one wish, that you had power and wealth 
To requite me by making rich yourself. 

Timon. Look thee, 't is so! — Thou singly honest man, 
Here, take ; the gods out of my misery 
Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy, 
But thus condition 'd : thou shalt build from men, 
Hate all, curse all, show charity to none, 
But let the famish 'd flesh slide from the bone, 
Ere thou relieve the beggar. Give to dogs 530 

What thou deni'st to men ; let prisons swallow 'em, 
Debts wither 'em to nothing. Be men like blasted woods, 
And may diseases lick up their false bloods ! 
And so farewell and thrive. 

Flavius. O, let me stay, 

And comfort you, my master. 

Timon. If thou hat'st curses, 

Stay not ; fly, whilst thou art blest and free. 
Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee. 

[Exit Flavius. Timon retires to his cave. 




Timon's Cave 



ACT V 

Scene I. The Woods, Before Tim on s Cave 

Enter Poet and Painter ; Timon watching the ?n from 
his cave 

Painter. As I took note of the place, it cannot be 
far where he abides. 

Poet. What 's to be thought of him ? does the 
rumour hold for true that he 's so full of gold ? 

Painter. Certain : Alcibiades reports it. Phrynia 
and Timandra had gold of him ; he likewise enriched 

124 



Scene I] Timon of Athens 125 

poor straggling soldiers with great quantity ; 't is 
said he gave unto his steward a mighty sum. 

Poet. Then this breaking of his has been but a try 
for his friends. 10 

Painter. Nothing else ; you shall see him a palm 
in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. 
Therefore 'tis not amiss we tender our loves to him, 
in this supposed distress of his ; it will show honestly 
in us, and is very likely to load our purposes with 
what they travail for, if it be a just and true report 
that goes of his having. 

Poet. What have you now to present unto him ? 

Painter, Nothing at this time but my visitation ; 
only I will promise him an excellent piece. 20 

Poet I must serve him so too, tell him of an in- 
tent that 's coming toward him. 

Painter. Good as the best. Promising is the very 
air o' the time ; it opens the eyes of expectation. 
Performance is ever the duller for his act ; and, but in 
the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of 
saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly 
and fashionable ; performance is a kind of will or 
testament which argues a great sickness in his judg- 
ment that makes it. \Timon comes from his cave, behind. 

Timon. [Aside] Excellent workman ! thou canst 
not paint a man so bad as is thyself. 32 

Poet. I am thinking what I shall say I have pro- 
vided for him. It must be a personating of himself ; 
a satire against the softness of prosperity, with a dis- 



126 Timon of Athens [Act v 

covery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and 
opulency. 

Timon. [Aside] Must thou needs stand for a villain 
in thine own work ? wilt thou whip thine own faults 
in other men ? Do so, I have gold for thee. 40 

Poet. Nay, let 's seek him. 
Then do we sin against our own estate, 
When we may profit meet, and come too late. 

Painter. True ; 
When the day serves, before black-corner'd night, 
Find what thou want'st by free and offer 'd light. 
Come. 

Timon. {Aside] I '11 meet you at the turn. What a 
god 's gold 
That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple 
Than where swine feed ! — 50 

'T is thou that rigg'st the bark and plough'st the foam, 
Settlest admired reverence in a slave. 
To thee be worship ! and thy saints for aye 
Be crown 'd with plagues that thee alone obey ! 
Fit I meet them. [Coming forward. 

Poet. Hail, worthy Timon ! 

Painter. Our late noble master ! 

Timon. Have I once liv'd to see two honest men ? 

Poet. Sir, 
Having often of your open bounty tasted, 
Hearing you were retir'd, your friends fallen off, 60 

Whose thankless natures — O abhorred spirits ! — 
Not all the whips of heaven are large enough — 



Scene I] Timon of Athens 127 

What ! to you, 

Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence 

To their whole being ! I am rapt and cannot cover 

The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude 

With any size of words. 

Timon. Let it go naked, men may see 't the better ; 
You that are honest, by being what you are, 
Make them best seen and known. 

Painter. He and myself 70 

Have travail'd in the great shower of your gifts 
And sweetly felt it. 

Timon. Ay, you are honest men. 

Painter. We are hither come to offer you our service. 

Timon. Most honest men ! Why, how shall I re- 
quite you ? 
Can you eat roots and drink cold water ? no. 

Both. What we can do we '11 do, to do you service. 

Timon. Ye 're honest men. Ye 've heard that I 
have gold, 
I am sure you have ; speak truth, ye 're honest men. 

Painter. So it is said, my noble lord ; but therefore 
Came not my friend nor I. 80 

Timon. Good honest men ! — Thou draw'st a coun- 
terfeit 
Best in all Athens. Thou 'rt, indeed, the best ; 
Thou counterfeit'st most lively. 

Painter. So, so, my lord. 

Timon. E'en so, sir, as I say. — And, for thy fiction, 
Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth 



128 Timon of Athens [Act v 

That thou art even natural in thine art. — 

But, for all this, my honest-natur'd friends, 

I must needs say you have a little fault ; 

Marry, 't is not monstrous in you, neither wish I 89 

You take much pains to mend. 

Both. Beseech your honour 

To make it known to us. 

Timon. You '11 take it ill. 

Both. Most thankfully, my lord. 

Timon. Will you, indeed ? 

Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord. 

Timon. There 's never a one of you but trusts a knave 
That mightily deceives you. 

Both. Do we, my lord ? 

Timon. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dis- 
semble, 
Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him, 
Keep in your bosom ; yet remain assur'd 
That he 's a made-up villain. 

Painter. I know none such, my lord. 

Poet. Nor I. 100 

Timon. Look you, I love you well ; I '11 give you gold, 
Rid me these villains from your companies. 
Hang them or stab them, drown them in a draught, 
Confound them by some course, and come to me, 
I '11 give you gold enough. 

Both. Name them, my lord, let 's know them. 

Timon. You that way and you this, but two in 
company ; 



Scene i] Timon of Athens 129 

Each man apart, all single and alone, 

Yet an arch-villain keeps him company. — 

If where thou art two villains shall not be, no 

Come not near him. — If thou wouldst not reside 

But where one villain is, then him abandon. — 

Hence, pack ! there 's gold ; you came for gold, ye 

slaves ! — 
[To Fainter] You have done work for me, there 's pay- 
ment ; hence ! — 
[To Poet] You are an alchemist, make gold of that. — 
Out, rascal dogs ! 

[Beats them out, and then retires to his cave. 

Enter Flavius and two Senators 

Flavins. It is in vain that you would speak with 
Timon ; 
For he is set so only to himself 
That nothing but himself which looks like man 
Is friendly with him. 

1 Senator. Bring us to his cave ; 120 
It is our part and promise to the Athenians 

To speak with Timon. 

2 Senator. At all times alike 

Men are not still the same. 'T was time and griefs 
That fram'd him thus ; time, with his fairer hand, 
Offering the fortunes of his former days, 
The former man may make him. Bring us to him, 
And chance it as it may. 

Flavius. Here is his cave. — 

TIMON OF ATHENS — 9 



130 Timon of Athens [Act v 

Peace and content be here ! Lord Timon ! Timon ! 
Look out, and speak to friends. The Athenians, 
By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee. 130 
Speak to them, noble Timon. 

Timon comes from his cave 

Timon. Thou sun that comfort'st, burn I — Speak, 
and be hang'd ! 
For each true word, a blister ! and each false 
Be as a cauterizing to the root o' the tongue, 
Consuming it with speaking ! 

1 Senator. Worthy Timon, — 

Timon. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon. 
1 Senator. The senators of Athens greet thee, 

Timon. 
Timon. I thank them, and would send them back 
the plague, 
Could I but catch it for them. 

1 Senator. O, forget 

What we are sorry for ourselves in thee ! 140 

The senators with one consent of love 

Entreat thee back to Athens, who have thought 

On special dignities which vacant lie 

For thy best use and wearing. 

2 Senator. They confess 
Toward thee forgetfulness too general, gross ; 
Which now the public body, which doth seldom 
Play the recanter, feeling in itself 

A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal 



Scene I] Timon of Athens 131 

Of it own fail, restraining aid to Timon, 

And send forth us, to make their sorrow'd render, 150 

Together with a recompense more fruitful 

Than their offence can weigh down by the dram, — 

Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth 

As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs. 

And write in thee the figures of their love, 

Ever to read them thine. 

Timon, You witch me in it, 

Surprise me to the very brink of tears. 
Lend me a fool's heart and a woman's eyes, 
And I '11 beweep these comforts, worthy senators. 

1 Senator. Therefore, so please thee to return with 

US, 160 

And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take 
The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks, 
Allow 'd with absolute power, and thy good name 
Live with authority ; so soon we shall drive back 
Of Alcibiades the approaches wild, 
Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up 
His country's peace. 

2 Senator. And shakes his threatening sword 
Against the walls of Athens. 

1 Senator. Therefore, Timon, — 

Timon. Well, sir, I will ; therefore, I will, sir ; thus : 

If Alcibiades kill my countrymen, 170 

Let Alcibiades know this of Timon, 

That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens, 

And take our goodly aged men by the beards, 



132 Timon of Athens [Act v 

Giving our holy virgins to the stain 

Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain 'd war, 

Then let him know — and tell him Timon speaks it, 

In pity of our aged and our youth, 

I cannot choose but tell him — that I care not, 

And let him take 't at worst ; for their knives care not 

While you have throats to answer. For myself, 180 

There 's not a whittle in the unruly camp 

But I do prize it at my love before 

The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you 

To the protection of the prosperous gods, 

As thieves to keepers. 

Flavius. Stay not, all 's in vain. 

Timon. Why, I was writing of my epitaph. 
It will be seen to-morrow ; my long sickness 
Of health and living now begins to mend, 
And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still ; 
Be Alcibiades your plague, you his, 190 

And last so long enough ! 

1 Senator. We speak in vain. 

Timon. But yet I love my country, and am not 
One that rejoices in the common wrack, 
As common bruit doth put it. 

1 Senator. That 's well spoke. 

Timon. Commend me to my loving countrymen, — 

1 Senator. These words become your lips as they 

pass thorough them. 

2 Senator. And enter in our ears like great tri- 

umphers 



Scene I] Timon of Athens 133 

In their applauding gates. 

Timon. Commend me to them, 

And tell them that, to ease them of their griefs, 199 

Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, 
Their pangs of love, with other incident throes 
That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain 
In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do 

them ; 
I '11 teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. 

1 Senator. I like this well ; he will return again. 

Ti?non. I have a tree, which grows here in my close, 
That mine own use invites me to cut down, 
And shortly must I fell it ; tell my friends, 
Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree 
From high to low throughout, that whoso please 210 

To stop affliction, let him take his haste, 
Come hither ere my tree hath felt the axe, 
And hang himself. I pray you, do my greeting. 

Flavins. Trouble him no further ; thus you still shall 
find him. 

Timon. Come not to me again ; but say to Athens, 
Timon hath made his everlasting mansion 
Upon the beached verge of the salt flood, 
Who once a day with his embossed froth 
The turbulent surge shall cover. Thither come, 
And let my gravestone be your oracle. 220 

Lips, let sour words go by and language end ; 
What is amiss plague and infection mend ! 
Graves only be men's works, and death their gain ! 



134 Timon of Athens [Act v 

Sun, hide thy beams ! Timon hath done his reign. 

[Retires to his cave, 

i Senator. His discontents are unremovably 
Coupled to nature. 

2 Senator. Our hope in him is dead ; let us return 
And strain what other means is left unto us 
In our dear peril. 

i Senator. It requires swift foot. [Exeunt. 



Scene II. Before the Walls of Athens 
Enter two Senators and a Messenger 

i Senator. Thou hast painfully discover'd; are his 
files 
As full as thy report ? 

Messenger. I have spoke the least ; 

Besides, his expedition promises 
Present approach. 

2 Senator. We stand much hazard if they bring not 
Timon. 

Messenger. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend, 
Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd, 
Yet our old love had a particular force, 
And made us speak like friends. This man was riding 
From Alcibiades to Timon 's cave, io 

With letters of entreaty which imported 
His fellowship i' the cause against your city, 
In part for his sake mov'd. 



Scene IV] Timon of Athens 135 

1 Senator. Here come our brothers. 

Enter the Senators from Timon 

3 Senator. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect. 
The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scouring 
Doth choke the air with dust ; in, and prepare. 
Ours is the fall, I fear, our foes the snare. [Exeunt. 

Scene III. The Woods. Tipton's Cave, and a Rude 
Tomb seen 

Enter a Soldier, seeking Timon 

Soldier. By all description this should be the place. 
Who 's here ? speak, ho ! No answer ! What is this ? 
Timon is dead, who hath outstretch 'd his span. 
Some beast read this ! there does not live a man. 
Dead, sure, and this his grave. What 's on this tomb 
I cannot read ; the character I '11 take with wax. 
Our captain hath in every figure skill, 
An aged interpreter, though young in days. 
Before proud Athens he 's set down by this, 
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is. [Exit. 

Scene IV. Before the Walls of Athens 

Trumpets sound. Enter Alcibiades with his powers 

Alcibiades. Sound to this coward and lascivious 
town 
Our terrible approach. — [A parley sounded. 



1^6 Timon of Athens [Act v 



Enter Senators on the walls 

Till now you have gone on and fill'd the time 

With all licentious measure, making your wills 

The scope of justice ; till now myself and such 

As slept within the shadow of your power 

Have wander 'd with our travers'd arms and breath'd 

Our sufferance vainly. Now the time is flush 

When crouching marrow in the bearer strong 

Cries of itself ' No more ; ' now breathless wrong 10 

Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease, 

And pursy insolence shall break his wind 

With fear and horrid flight. 

i Senator. Noble and young, 

When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit, 
Ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear, 
We sent to thee, to give thy rages balm, 
To wipe out our ingratitudes with loves 
Above their quantity. 

2 Senator. So did we woo 

Transformed Timon to our city's love 
By humble message and by promis'd means. 20 

We were not all unkind, nor all deserve 
The common stroke of war. 

1 Senator. These walls of ours 

Were not erected by their hands from whom 
You have receiv'd your griefs ; nor are they such 
That these great towers, trophies, and schools should 
fall 



Scene IV] Timon of Athens 137 

For private faults in them. 

2 Senator. Nor are they living 

Who were the motives that you first went out ; 
Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess 
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord, 
Into our city with thy banners spread. 30 

By decimation and a tithed death — 
If thy revenges hunger for that food 
Which nature loathes — take thou the destin'd tenth, 
And by the hazard of the spotted die 
Let die the spotted. 

1 Senator. All have not offended ; 
For those that were, it is not square to take 
On those that are, revenges ; crimes, like lands, 
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman, 
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage ; 

Spare thy Athenian cradle and those kin 40 

Which in the bluster of thy wrath must fall 
With those that have offended. Like a shepherd, 
Approach the fold and cull the infected forth, 
But kill not all together. 

2 Senator. What thou wilt, 
Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile 
Than hew to 't with thy sword. 

1 Senator. Set but thy foot 
Against our rampir'd gates and they shall ope, 
So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before, 

To say thou 'It enter friendly. 

2 Senator. Throw thy glove, 



138 Timon of Athens [Act v 

Or any token of thine honour else, 50 

That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress 
And not as our confusion, all thy powers 
Shall make their harbour in our town till we 
Have seal'd thy full desire. 

Alcibiades. Then there s s my glove ; 

Descend, and open your uncharged ports. 
Those enemies of Timon 's and mine own 
Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof 
Fall, and no more ; and, to atone your fears 
With my more noble meaning, not a man 
Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream 60 

Of regular justice in your city's bounds, 
But shall be render'd to your public laws 
At heaviest answer. 

Both. 'T is most nobly spoken. 

Alcibiades. Descend, and keep your words. 

[The Senators descend, and open the gates. 

Enter Soldier 

Soldier. My noble general, Timon is dead, 
Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea; 
And on his gravestone this insculpture which 
With wax I brought away, whose soft impression 
Interprets for my poor ignorance. 

Alcibiades. [Reads] ' Here lies a wretched corse, of 
wretched soul bereft ; 70 

Seek not my name. A plague consume you wicked caitiffs 
left!' 



Scene IV] Timon of Athens 139 

[' Here lie I, Timon, who, alive, all living men did hate ; 
Pass by and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy 

gait:] 
These well express in thee thy latter spirits. 
Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, 
Scorn 'dst our brain's flow and those our droplets which 
From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit 
Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye 
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead 
Is noble Timon, of whose memory 80 

Hereafter more. — Bring me into your city, 
And I will use the olive with my sword, 
Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make 

each 
Prescribe to other as each other's leech. — 
Let our drums strike. [Exeunt. 



NOTES 




Athenian Coin 



NOTES 



Introduction 

The Metre of the Play. — It should be understood at the 
outset that metre, or the mechanism of verse, is something alto- 
gether distinct from the music of verse. The one is matter of rule, 
the other of taste and feeling. Music is not an absolute necessity 
of verse ; the metrical form is a necessity, being that which consti- 
tutes the verse. 

The plays of Shakespeare (with the exception of rhymed pas- 
sages, and of occasional songs and interludes) are all in unrhymed 
or blank verse ; and the normal form of this blank verse is illus- 
trated by the second line of the present play: "I have not seen 
you long ; how goes the world ? " 

This line, it will be seen, consists of ten syllables, with the even 
syllables (2d, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th) accented, the odd syllables 
(1st, 3d, etc.) being unaccented. Theoretically, it is made up of 
five feet of two syllables each, with the accent on the second sylla- 
ble. Such a foot is called an iambus (plural, iambuses, or the Latin 
iambi), and the form of verse is called iambic. 

This fundamental law of Shakespeare's verse is subject to certain 
modifications, the most important of which are as follows : — 

H3 



144 Notes 

i. After the tenth syllable an unaccented syllable (or even two 
such syllables) may be added, forming what is sometimes called a 
female line ; as in i. I. 7 : "Hath conjur'd to attend. I know 
the merchant." The rhythm is complete with the first syllable of 
merchant, the second being an extra eleventh syllable. So also 
with i. 1. 20, 22, 35, 38, etc. 

2. The accent in any part of the verse may be shifted from an 
even to an odd syllable ; as in i. 1. 33 : " Speaks his own standing ! 
What a mental power ; " and 35 : " Moves in this lip," etc. In 
both lines the accent is shifted from the second to the first syllable. 
This change occurs very rarely in the tenth syllable, and seldom in 
the fourth ; and it is not allowable in two successive accented sylla- 
bles. 

3. An extra unaccented syllable may occur in any part of the 
line ; as in i. 1.4 and 20. In 4 the third syllable of particular is 
superfluous ; and in 20 the word are. 

4. Any unaccented syllable, occurring in an even place immedi- 
ately before or after an even syllable which is properly accented, is 
reckoned as accented for the purposes of the verse ; as, for instance, 
in lines 4 and 16. In 4 the last syllable of rarity, and in 16 that 
of recompense, are metrically equivalent to accented syllables ; and 
so with the last syllable of excellent in 31, the first of artificial in 
39, and the last of livelier in 40. 

5. In many instances in Shakespeare words must be lengthened 
in order to fill out the rhythm : — 

(a) In a large class of words in which e or i is followed by 
another vowel, the e or i is made a separate syllable ; as ocean, 
opinion, soldier, patience, partial, marriage, etc. For instance, 
Lear, iv. 5. 3 (" Your sister is the better soldier ") appears to have 
only nine syllables, but soldier is a trisyllable ; and the same is true 
°f gorgeous in Id. ii. 4. 266 : M If only to go warm were gorgeous." 
This lengthening occurs most frequently at the end of the line, and 
is most common in the earliest plays. 

(&) Many monosyllables ending in r, re, rs, res, preceded by a 



Notes 145 



long vowel or diphthong, are often made dissyllables ; as fare, 
fear, dear, fire, hair, hour, sire, etc. If the word is repeated in a 
verse it is often both monosyllable and dissyllable ; as in M. of V. 
iii. 2. 20 : " And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so," where 
either yours (preferably the first) is a dissyllable, the other being a 
monosyllable. Iny. C. iii. 1. 172: "As fire drives out fire, so pity, 
pity," the first fire is a dissyllable. 

(c) Words containing / or r, preceded by another consonant, are 
often pronounced as if a vowel came between or after the conso- 
nants ; as in A. W. iii. 5. 40 : " If you will tarry, holy pilgrim " 
[pilg(e)rim] ; C. of E. v. I. 360 : " These are the parents of these 
children" (childeren, the original form of the word) ; T. of S, ii. 
1. 158 : "While she did call me rascal fiddler" [fiddl(e)er], etc. 

(a 7 ) Monosyllabic exclamations (ay, O, yea, nay, hail, etc.) and 
monosyllables otherwise emphasized are similarly lengthened ; also 
certain longer words; as commandement in M. of V. iv. 1. 451 ; 
safety (trisyllable) in Ham. i. 3. 21 ; business (trisyllable, as origi- 
nally pronounced) in J. C. iv. 1. 22 : "To groan and sweat under 
the business " (so in several other passages) ; and other words 
mentioned in the notes to the plays in which they occur. 

6. Words are also contracted for metrical reasons, like plurals 
and possessives ending in a sibilant, as balance, horse (for horses 
and horses), princess, sense, marriage (plural and possessive), 
image, etc. So with many adjectives in the superlative, like 
greatest, highest, quickest, sternest, secrefst, etc., and certain other 
words (like spirits in i. I. 6, etc.). 

7. The accent of words is also varied in many instances for 
metrical reasons. Thus we find both revenue and revenue in the 
first scene of M. N. D. (lines 6 and 158), cdnfine (noun) and con- 
fine, direct (see on iv. 3. 20) and direct, pursue and pursue, dis- 
tinct and distinct, etc. 

These instances of variable accent must not be confounded with 
those in which words were uniformly accented differently in the 
time of Shakespeare; like aspect, iinpdrtune, sepulchre (verb),yV/-- 

TIMON OF ATHENS — IO 



146 Notes 

sever (never persevere), perseverance, detestable (see on iv. I. 33), 
m&nkind (see on iv. I. 40), rheumatic, etc. 

8. Alexandrines, or verses of twelve syllables, with six accents, 
occur here and there in the plays. They must not be confounded 
with female lines with two extra syllables (see on 1 above) or with 
other lines in which two extra unaccented syllables may occur. 

9. Inco?nplete verses, of one or more syllables, are scattered 
through the plays. See i. I. 12, 13, 29, 30, 36, etc. 

10. Doggerel measure is used in the very earliest comedies 
(Z. Z. Z. and C. of E. in particular) in the mouths of comic 
characters, but nowhere else in those plays, and never anywhere 
in plays written after 1598. 

11. Rhy?ne occurs frequently in the early plays, but diminishes 
with comparative regularity from that period until the latest. Thus, 
in Z. Z. Z. there are about 1100 rhyming verses (about one-third 
of the whole number), in M. N. D. about 900, in Rich. II. and 
R. and J. about 500 each, while in Cor. and A. and C. there 
are only about 40 each, in Temp, only two, and in W. T. none 
at all, except in the chorus introducing act iv. Songs, interludes, 
and other matter not in ten-syllable measure are not included in 
this enumeration. In the present play, out of about 1500 ten- 
syllable verses, about 150 are in rhyme. 

Alternate rhymes are found only in the plays written before 1599 
or 1600. In M. of V. there are only four lines at the end of iii. 2. 
In Much Ado and A. Y. L. we also find a few lines, but none at 
all in subsequent plays. 

Rhy??ied couplets, or " rhyme-tags," are often found at the end of 
scenes; as in 14 of the 17 scenes of the present play. In Ham. 
14 out of 20 scenes, and in Macb. 21 out of 28, have such " tags ; " 
but in the latest plays they are not so frequent. In Tenip., for in- 
stance, there is but one, and in W. T. none. 

12. In this edition of Shakespeare, the final -ed of past tenses 
and participles in verse is printed -d when the word is to be pro- 
nounced in the ordinary way ; as in breath! d, i. I. 10 and nourished, 



Notes 147 



i. 1. 23. But when the metre requires that the ~cd be made a 
separate syllable, the e is retained ; as in prized, i. 1. 174, where 
the word is a dissyllable. The only variation from this rule is in 
verbs like cry, die, sue, etc., the ~ed of which is very rarely, if ever, 
made a separate syllable. 

Shakespeare's Use of Verse and Prose in the Plays. — This 
is a subject to which the critics have given very little attention, 
but it is an interesting study. In this play we find scenes entirely 
in verse (none entirely in prose), and others in which the two are 
mixed. In general, we may say that verse is used for what is dis- 
tinctly poetical, and prose for what is not poetical. The distinc- 
tion, however, is not so clearly marked in the earlier as in the later 
plays. The second scene of M. of V., for instance, is in prose, 
because Portia and Nerissa are talking about the suitors in a familiar 
and playful way ; but in T. G. of V., where Julia and Lucetta are 
discussing the suitors of the former in much the same fashion, the 
scene is in verse. Dowden, commenting on Rich. II, remarks : 
" Had Shakespeare written the play a few years later, we may be 
certain that the gardener and his servants (iii. 4) would not have 
uttered stately speeches in verse, but would have spoken homely 
prose, and that humour would have mingled with the pathos of the 
scene. The same remark may be made with reference to the sub- 
sequent scene (v. 5) in which his groom visits the dethroned king 
in the Tower." Comic characters and those in low life generally 
speak in prose in the later plays, as Dowden intimates, but in the 
very earliest ones doggerel verse is much used instead. See on 10 
above. 

The change from prose to verse is well illustrated in the third 
scene of M. of V. It begins with plain prosaic talk about a busi- 
ness matter ; but when Antonio enters, it rises at once to the higher 
level of poetry. The sight of Antonio reminds Shylock of his 
hatred of the Merchant, and the passion expresses itself in verse, 
the vernacular tongue of poetry. 

The reasons for the choice of prose or verse are not always so 



148 Xores 

clear as in this instance. We are seldom puzzled to explain the 
prose, but not unfrequently we meet with Terse where we might 
±y.z-=;- prist. AsPriftssi: 1 1 := 1 r. :t~i:l:s ~k:-: zy.::::n :: S'zzzz- 
spear e, 1889), " Shakespeare adopted Terse as the general tenor of 
his language, and therefore expressed much in Terse that is within 
the capabilities of prose ; in other words, his Terse constantly en- 
croaches upon the domain of prose, but his prose can nerer be said 
:: t~ 1:1 1:':. zz m :it izziiiz. 1: trst. I:" in :i:t i-r.ir.its ~e :Liz> 
~ -t f.r. i t:-::t- :n n ; : 1 :hi= .3. lit: sisitmtr.i. 2.: i ;: 1 5t 2.:: -ill" sttns 11 
usurp the place of Terse, I beliere that careful study of the passage 
will prore the supposed exception to be apparent rather than reaL 

Some Books for Teachers and Students. — A few out of the 
many books that might be commended to the teacher and the 
critical student are the following : Halhwell-Phillipps's Outlines 
of the Life of Shakespeare (7th e<L 1887) ; Lee's Life of Shake- 
speare (1898 ; for ordinary students the abridged e<L of 1899 is 
preferable) ; RohVs Ufe of Shakespeare (1904) ; Schmidt's Shake- 
speare Lexicon (3d e<L 1902) ; Iittledale's ed. of Dyce's Glossary 
(1902) ; Bartletf s Concordance to Shakespeare (1895) ; Abbotfs 
Shakespearian Grammar (1873) ; Furness '= It Variorum" ed. 
of the plays (encyclopaedic and exhaustiTe) ; Dowden's Shakspere : 
His Mind and Art (American ed. 18S1) ; Hudson's Life, Art, 
and Characters of Shakespeare (revised ed. 1882) ; Mrs. Jameson's 
Characteristics of Women (several eds. ; some with the title, 
J" l----:/:/: .:•-■: Jzi ■■■::■■:■:: : Ten Z ri -"-:'= 7::-: l-::::i--:: :k S':zh::z-:z ■-: 
( l8 95) ; Boas's Shakespeare and His Predecessors (1895) '* Try™ 9 * 
Folk-lore of Shakespeare (American ed. 1884) ; Gervinus's Shake- 
speare Commentaries (Bunnetf s translation, 1875) ; Wordsworth's 
Shakespeare's Knowledge of Oe Bible (3d ed. 1880) ; Hson's 
Shakespeare in Music (1901). 

Some of the above books will be useful to all readers who are 

interested in special subjects or in general criticism of Shakespeare. 

ing those which are better suited to the needs of ordinary 

:tzi.:s zz.i r.^itzzs, :'z.t ::'.'.:"zzz zzzy :- . t:.::: iti Mint's 



Notes 149 



William Shakespeare : Poet, Dramatist, and Man (1900) ; Dow- 
den's Shakspere Primer (1877 ; small but invaluable) ; Rolfe's 
Shakespeare the Boy (1896 ; not a mere juvenile book, but treating 
of the home and school life, the games and sports, the manners, 
customs, and folk-lore of the poet's time) ; Guerber's Myths of 
Greece and Rome (for young students who may need information 
on mythological allusions not explained in the notes). 

H. Snowden Ward's Shakespeare *s Town and Times (2d ed. 
1902) and John Leyland's Shakespeare Country (2d ed. 1903) are 
copiously illustrated books (yet inexpensive) which may be particu- 
larly commended for school libraries. 

Abbreviations in the Notes. — The abbreviations of the names 
of Shakespeare's plays will be readily understood ; as T. N. for 
Twelfth Night, Cor. for Coriolanus, 3 Hen. VI. for The Third 
Part of King Henry the Sixth, etc. P. P. refers to The Passionate 
Pilgrim ; V. and A. to Venus and Adonis ; L. C. to Lover's Com- 
plaint; and Sonn. to the Sonnets. 

Other abbreviations that hardly need explanation are Cf. (confer, 
compare), FoL (following), Id. {idem, the same), and Prol. (pro- 
logue). The numbers of the lines in the references (except for 
the present play) are those of the " Globe " edition (the cheapest 
and best edition of Shakespeare in one compact volume), which is 
now generally accepted as the standard for line-numbers in works 
of reference (Schmidt's Lexicon, Abbott's Grammar, Dowden's 
Primer, the publications of the New Shakspere Society, etc.). 

The Sources of the Plot. — The following is the complete 
text of Paynter's "Novel" (see p. 15 above), as quoted by Knight 
and others : — 

" Of the strange and beastly nature of Timon of Athens, enemy 
to mankind, with his death, burial, and epitaph. 

" All the beasts of the world do apply themselves to other beasts 
of their kind, Timon of Athens only excepted : of whose strange 
nature Plutarch is astonied, in the life of Marcus Antonius. Plato 
and Aristophanes do report his marvellous nature, because he was 



150 Notes 



a man but by shape only, in qualities he was the capital enemy of 
mankind, which he confessed frankly utterly to abhor and hate. 
He dwelt alone in a little cabin in the fields not far from Athens, 
separated from all neighbours and company : he never went to the 
city, or to any other habitable place, except he was constrained : 
he could not abide any man's company and conversation : he was 
never seen to go to any man's house, nor yet would suffer them to 
come to him. At the same time there was in Athens another of 
like quality, called Apemantus, of the very same nature, different 
from the natural kind of man, and lodged likewise in the middle 
of the fields. On a day they two being alone together at dinner, 
Apemantus said unto him, ' O, Timon, what a pleasant feast is this ! 
and what a merry company are we, being no more but thou and I ! ' 
' Nay (quoth Timon), it would be a merry banquet indeed, if there 
were none here but myself.' 

"Wherein he showed how like a beast (indeed) he was: for he 
could not abide any other man, being not able to suffer the company 
of him, which was of like nature. And if by chance he happened 
to go to Athens, it was only to speak with Alcibiades, who was then 
an excellent captain there, whereat many did marvel; and there- 
fore Apemantus demanded of him, why he spake to no man, but to 
Alcibiades? ' I speak to him sometimes,' said Timon, ' because I 
know 7 that by his occasion the Athenians shall receive great hurt 
and trouble.' Which words many times he told to Alcibiades 
himself. He had a garden adjoining to his house in the fields, 
wherein was a fig-tree, whereupon many desperate men ordinary 
did hang themselves; in place whereof he proposed to set up a 
house, and therefore was forced to cut it down, for which cause 
he went to Athens, and in the market-place, he called the people 
about him, saying that he had news to tell them : when the people 
understood that he was about to make a discourse unto them, which 
was wont to speak to no man, they marvelled, and the citizens on 
every part of the city ran to hear him; to whom he said, that he 
proposed to cut down his fig-tree to build a house upon the place 



Notes 151 



where it stood. * Wherefore (quoth he) if there be any man 
among you all in this company that is disposed to hang himself, let 
him come betimes before it be cut down.' Having thus bestowed 
his charity among the people, he returned to his lodging, where he 
lived a certain time after without alteration of nature; and because 
that nature changed not in his life-time, he would not suffer that 
death should alter or vary the same : for like as he lived a beastly 
and churlish life, even so he required to have his funeral done after 
that manner. By his last will he ordained himself to be interred 
upon the sea-shore, that the waves and surges might beat and vex 
his dead carcase. Yea, and that if it were possible, his desire was 
to be buried in the depth of the sea; causing an epitaph to be 
made, wherein were described the qualities of his brutish life. 
Plutarch also reporteth another to be made by Callimachus, much 
like to that which Timon made himself, whose own soundeth to 
this effect in English verse : — 

1 My wretched catife days, 
Expired now and past : 

My carren corpse interred here, 
Is fast in ground : 

In waltring waves of swel- 
ling sea, by surges cast, 

My name if thou desire, 
The gods thee do confound.' " 

The passage referring to Timon in North's Plutarch (p. 15 above) 
is as follows {Shakespeare's Plutarch, edited by Skeat, p. 215) : — 

" Antonius, he forsook the city [Alexandria] and company of 
his friends, and built him a house in the sea, by the ile of Pharos, 
upon certain forced mounts which he caused to be cast into the sea, 
and dwelt there, as a man that banished himself from all men's 
company : saying that he would lead Timon's life, because he had 
the like wrong offered him, that was afore offered unto Timon ; and 
that for the unthankful ness of those he had done good unto, and 
whom he took to be his friends, he was angry with all ?nen, and 



152 Notes 



would trust no man. This Timon was a citizen of Athens, that 
lived about the war of Peloponnesus, as appeareth by Plato, and 
Aristophanes' comedies : 1 in which they mocked him, calling him 
a viper, and malicious man unto mankind, to shun all other men's 
companies but the company of young Alcibiades, a bold and inso- 
lent youth, whom he would greatly feast, and make much of, and 
kissed him very gladly. Apemantus wondering at it, asked him 
the cause what he meant to make so much of that young man 
alone, and to hate all others : Timon answered him, ' I do it,' said 
he, ' because I know that one day he shall do great mischief unto 
the Athenians.' This Timon sometimes would have Apemantus 
in his company, because he was much like to his nature and condi- 
tions, and also followed him in manner of life. On a time when 
they solemnly celebrated the feast called Choce at Athens (to wit, 
the feasts of the dead, where they made sprinklings and sacrifices 
for the dead), and that they two then feasted together by them- 
selves, Apemantus said unto the other : ' O, here is a trim banquet, 
Timon.' Timon answered again, ' Yea,' said he, ' so thou wert not 
here.' It is reported of him also, that this Timon on a time (the 
people being assembled in the market-place about despatch of 
some affairs) got up into the pulpit for orations, where the orators 
commonly used to speak unto the people; and silence being made, 
every man listening to hear what he would say, because it was a 
wonder to see him in that place, at length he began to speak in this 
manner : — * My lords of Athens, I have a little yard at my house 
where there groweth a fig-tree, on the which many citizens have 
hanged themselves; and because I mean to make some building 

1 Two passages are extant in the Comedies of Aristophanes in which 
Timon is mentioned : the 1549th of the Birds, in which Prometheus 
calls himself a Timon, a sort of god-misanthrope among the deities ; 
and lines 805-820 of the Lysistrata, where his solitary, man-hating life is 
briefly depicted. Plato, the comic poet, was another contemporary. 
So also was Phrynichus, a fragment of whose, describing Timon's 
habits, is preserved by a grammarian (Clough). 



Notes 153 

upon the place, I thought good to let you all understand it, that be- 
fore the fig-tree be cut down, if any of you be desperate, you may 
there in time go hang yourselves.' He died in the city of Hales, 
and was buried upon the sea-side. Now it chanced so, that the sea 
getting in, it compassed his tomb round about, that no man could 
come to it; and upon the same was written this epitaph : — 

' Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft : 
Seek not my name : a plague consume you wicked wretches left ! ' 

" It is reported that Timon himself when he lived made this 
epitaph ; for that which is commonly rehearsed was not his, but 
made by the poet Callimachus : — 

' Here lie I, Timon, who alive all living men did hate : 
Pass by and curse thy fill ; but pass, and stay not here thy gait.' " 

The following extract from the banquet-scene in the old MS. play 
of Timon (quoted by Knight) will serve as a specimen of that 
composition : — 

11 Timon. O happy me, equal to Jove himself! 
I going touch the stars. Break out, O joy, 
And smother not thyself within my breast ! 
So many friends, so many friends I see; 
Not one hath falsified his faith to me. 
What if I am oppress'd with poverty ? 
And grief doth vex me ? fortune left me poor ? 
All this is nothing : they relieve my wants ; 
This one doth promise help, another gold, 
A third a friendly welcome to his house, 
And entertainment ; each man acts his part ; 
All promise counsel and a faithful heart. 

Gelasimus. Timon, thou art forgetful of thy feast. 

Timon. Why do ye not fall to ? I am at home. 
I '11 standing sup, or walking, if I please. — 
Laches, bring here the artichokes with speed. — 
Eutrapelus, Demeas, Hermogenes, 
I '11 drink this cup, a health to all your healths ! 



154 Notes 

Li :'-.:: Z •:=. "tr. .: :z : : z : if : z I errii 
Le: :: :e niszaae :: ::tz, ' A:i.c. 

Gelasimws. What, wilt tbou hare the leg or eie the wing ? 

1 - i;:Z: ~ir.-r ;• t iza: :i;:i 

Demuas. I will en: him np 
A" i ziiae i zeas: ::' a:~ 

PkUmrgmrms. Tnnon, this health to thee 

7 I : - '.fire ;• :_ 5:: 

Til f 1 5 : : r. : : e z 1 f ai - 

Zi-.{- I .:-e :"-t— " el' :; "■:- 7 

11: a_ :: ; = 



.;.--:- .:.".' -:; /;; 



A-~ ' " : = : is ire iaiaea : _: 

.-...■ ... :.-. ■ t: :■■= z:j ::: 

7: ra e! _: :: /.t ■ . 7 : 

?tr-_i :a: iere . 
I 1 ~. z \ :-■': z '1 : : j.Y :.::/:; 7lM : v :::' l_A::-:ii, 

--."- V: zaVi r-jrrif:::.:. 
I: iiarie: ::' aaza: aarie: aa at ::_ai 
Miarirrs: :: ^: ;::. a a. .:. :;~: *a_. 
- 

: :::r. 

Lazaes ii :at :i::"aral =:r~2:i :: :ai5 :'.i z'.iy. 

L_z:ia = la::;: _~: ■;-: / :.: .".':. a- -;::- vr.' ::ti> — 11 iz 
liirtss if _~:a. :r. :: "_: :er. ::.: ::::ri:;: :." ::\zz.L~'~ : .z zai :' 

1 : ::: _ ± : : - . : : ::: z 



Notes 155 



thunderbolt, that he no longer revenges the wickedness of men. 
He then describes his own calamities. After having enriched a 
crowd of Athenians that he had rescued from misery, after having 
profusely distributed his riches amongst his friends, those ungrate- 
ful men despise him because he has become poor. Timon speaks 
from the desert, where he is clothed with skins and labours with 
a spade. Jupiter inquires of Mercury who it is cries so loud from 
the depth of the valley near Mount Hymettus ; and Mercury an- 
swers that he is Timon — that rich man who so frequently offered 
whole hecatombs to the gods ; and adds that it was at first thought 
that he was the victim of his goodness, his philanthropy, and his 
compassion for the unfortunate, but that he ought to attribute his 
fall to the bad choice which he made of his friends, and to the 
want of discernment which prevented his seeing that he was heap- 
ing benefits upon wolves and ravens. " Whilst these vultures were 
preying upon his liver, he thought them his best friends, and that 
they fed upon him out of pure love and affection. After they had 
gnawed him all round, eaten his bones bare, and, if there was any 
marrow in them, sucked it carefully out, they left him, cut down 
to the roots and withered ; and so far from relieving or assisting 
him in their turns, would not so much as know or look upon him. 
This has made him turn digger ; and here, in his skin garment, he 
tills the earth for hire ; ashamed to show himself in the city, and 
venting his rage against the ingratitude of those who, enriched as 
they had been by him, now proudly pass along, and know not 
whether his name is Timon." Jupiter resolves to dispatch Mercury 
and Plutus to bestow new wealth upon Timon, and the god of 
riches very reluctantly consents to go, because, if he return to 
Timon, he should again become the prey of parasites and courte- 
sans. The subsequent dialogue between Mercury and Plutus, upon 
the use of riches, is exceedingly acute and amusing. The gods, upon 
approaching Timon, descry him working with his spade, in com- 
pany with Labour, Poverty, Wisdom, Courage, and all the virtues 
that are in the train of indigence. Poverty thus addresses Plutus : 



i 5 6 



Notes 



* You come to find Timon ; and as to me who have received him 
enervated by luxury, he would forsake me when I have rendered 
him virtuous : you come to enrich him anew, which will render 
him as before, idle, effeminate, and besotted." Timon rejects the 
offers which Plutus makes him ; and the gods leave him, desiring 
him to continue digging. He then finds gold, and thus apostro- 
phizes it : " It is, it must be, gold, fine, yellow, noble gold ; heavy, 
sweet to behold. . . . Burning like fire, thou shinest day and 
night : come to me, thou dear delightful treasure ! now do I be- 
lieve that Jove himself was once turned into gold : what virgin 
would not spread forth her bosom to receive so beautiful a lover ?" 
But the Timon of Lucian has other uses for his riches than Plutus 
anticipated — he will guard them without employing them ; he 
will, as he says, "purchase some retired spot, there build a tower 1 
to keep my gold in, and live for myself alone ; this shall be my 
habitation ; and, when I am dead, my sepulchre also : from this 
time forth it is my fixed resolution to have no commerce or con- 
nection with mankind, but to despise and avoid it. I will pay no 
regard to acquaintance, friendship, pity, or compassion : to pity 
the distressed or to relieve the indigent I shall consider as a weak- 
ness — nay, as a crime ; my life, like the beasts of the field, shall 
be spent in solitude, and Timon alone shall be Timon's friend. I 
will treat all beside as enemies and betrayers ; to converse with 
them were profanation, to herd with them impiety : accursed be 
the day that brings them to my sight ! " The most agreeable 
name to me, he adds, shall be that of Misanthrope. A crowd 
approach who have heard of his good fortune ; and first comes 
Gnathon, a parasite, who brings him a new poem — a dithyramb. 
Timon strikes him down with his spade. Another, and another, 
succeeds ; and one comes from the senate to hail him as the safe- 
guard of the Athenians. Each in his turn is welcomed with blows. 
The dialogue concludes with Timon's determination to mount 
upon a rock, and to receive even' man with a shower of stones. 
1 Pausanias mentions a building called the " Tower of Timon." 



Notes 



*57 



Knight remarks : " There can be no doubt, we think, that a 
great resemblance may be traced between the Greek satirist and 
the English dramatist. The false friends of Timon are much more 
fully described by Lucian than by Plutarch. The finding the gold 
is the same, the rejection of it by the Timon of Shakspere is essen- 
tially the same : — the poet of the play was perhaps suggested by 
the flatterer who came with the new ode; — the senator with his 
gratulations is not very different from the senators in the drama ; 
the blows and stones are found both in the ancient and the mod- 
ern. There are minor similarities which might be readily traced, 
if we believed that Shakspere had gone direct to Lucian." 

The Dramatis Persons. — These are given in the folio thus: — 



THE 




ACTORS 


NAMES 


TYMON of Athens. 


Plaminius, one of Tynions Seruants. 


Lucius, And 


Seruilius, another. 


Lucullus, two Flattering Lords. 


Caphis. 




Appemantus, a Churlish Philosopher. 


Varro. 




Sempronius, another flattering Lord. 


Philo. 


Seuerall Seruants to 


Alcidiades, an Athenian Captaine. 


Titus. 


Vsurers. 


Poet. 


Lucius. 




Painter. 


Hortensis. 




jeweller. 


Ventigius t oneofTymonsfalseFriends. 


Merchant. 


Cupid. 


Certaine Senatours. 


Sempronius. 


Certaine Maskers. 


With diuers other Seruants, 


Certaine Theeues. 


And Attendai 


its. 



Phrynia, Timandra, and others are omitted. It will be noted 
that Varro and Lucius occur among the names of the servants, 
and the latter has been retained by most of the editors. The Cam- 
bridge editors remark : " In the play the servants address each 
other by the names of their respective masters : hence the confu- 
sion. Perhaps all the names assigned to the servants should be 
considered as names of their masters. Hortensius, for instance, 



158 Notes [Act 1 

has not a servile sound. Flaminius and Servilius may be regarded 
rather as gentlemen in waiting than menials." Walker suggests 
that Caphis should be Capys, 

Ini. 2. 160, the Steward is called Flavins ; but in ii. 2. 191, the 
folios make that the name of one of the servants whom Timon 
calls for when the Steward is already on the stage. The editors 
generally have given the name Flavins to the Steward, and have 
followed Rowe in substituting Flaminins in ii. 2. 191 ; but, as the 
latter is in Shakespeare's part of the play, while i. 2 is not, Hud- 
son follows the folio in calling the servant Flavins, and designates 
the Steward by the name of his office, both in the text and the 
prefixes to speeches. It is to be noted, however, that in iii. 1 the 
servant who is repeatedly called Flaminins appears to be the 
same who is called Flavins in ii. 2. 191 ; and as the names might 
easily be confounded in the manuscript (especially if they were 
abbreviated, as was usual), it seems quite as likely that Flavins was 
misprinted there as that the confusion of names is to be ascribed 
to the writer who completed the play. It is true that the metre 
seems to favour the old reading of Flavins, but, as Abbott has 
shown (Gramftiar, 469), S. often contracts or slurs polysyllabic 
proper names at the end of a line, and sometimes in the middle 
of a line. 



ACT I 



Scene I. — In the folios this is headed "Actus Primus, Sccena 
Prima ; " but there is no other indication of act or scene through- 
out the play. The stage-direction is the same as in the folio, except 
that others is there " Mercer" 

All the critics agree that this scene is nearly all Shakespeare's, 
and there could not well be any question about it. 

1. / am glad. Fleay would add "to see," to fill out the 
measure. 

3. // wears, sir, as it grows. That is, it wears away, or is 



Scene I] Notes 159 

wasted, as it grows older ; a half-sportive expression. It has been 
suggested that it may mean " the world keeps on its usual course, 
or, as we say, ' holds its own,' as it grows older." 

5. Record. S, accents the noun on either syllable, according to 
the measure. 

6. Spirits. Monosyllabic ; as very often. 

7. Conjured. The accent in S. is independent of the meaning. 

8. Th? other 's. The folio has " th' others." Some editors print 
"V other's." 

10. Breathed. " Inured by constant practice ; so trained as 
not to be wearied. To breathe a horse is to exercise him for 
the course" (Johnson). Cf. Ham. v. 2. 181 : " breathing time ; " 
A. Y. L.\. 2. 230 : " well breathed," etc. 

n. Continuate. Continual. Cf. Oth. iii. 4. 178: "continuate 
time ; " where the 1st quarto has "convenient." Steevens quotes 
Chapman, Odyss. iv. : " a continuate yell ; " and Id. x. : " one 
continuate rock." 

12. He passes. " That is, exceeds, goes beyond common 
bounds" (Steevens). Cf. M. W. i. I. 310, iv. 2. 127, 143, etc. 
Fleay would read " passes praise." 

15. Touch the esti?nate. "Come up to the price" (Johnson). 

16. [Reciting to himself \ There is no stage-direction in the 
folio. Some editors insert " [Reading from his poem~\" but 20 
seems rather to* imply that the Poet is repeating his poem to 
himself. 

What a thoroughly Shakespearian bit of verse it is ! — too good 
for the sycophant in whose mouth it is put. 

18. [Looking at the jew ef\. Not in the folio; first inserted by 
Pope. 

22. Gum which oozes. The folio has "Gowne, which vses." 
Pope read "gum, which issues;" and Johnson inserted oozes. 
Fleay suggests "glow which uses," and compares Sonn. 73. 9-12. 
In the next line he would read " Though the fire," etc. 

25. Provokes. Calls forth (the etymological sense) ; like pro- 



1 60 Notes [Act 1 

duce (= carry forth) in/. C. iii. I. 228: " Produce his body to the 
market-place," etc. 

26. Chafes. The folios have " chases" (with a long s) ; cor- 
rected by Theobald. Johnson says : "This may mean that it 
expands itself notwithstanding all obstructions ; but the images in 
the comparison are so ill sorted and the effect so obscurely ex- 
pressed, that I cannot but think something omitted that con- 
nected the last sentence with the former." Steevens was inclined 
to retain " chases," making the sense : " having touched on one 
subject it flies off to another." Mason put a semicolon after flies, 
and paraphrased the passage thus : " Our gentle flame animates 
itself ; it flies like a current ; and every obstacle serves but to 
increase its force." Henley thinks that the "jumble of incongru- 
ous images " was " put into the mouth of the poetaster that the 
reader might appreciate his talents." Schmidt suggests that per- 
haps we should read " chafes with," and compares/. C. i. 2. 101 : 
" The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores." Clarke apparently 
takes bounds to be = leaps, and gives the meaning as " flows rapidly 
on at each bound that it chafingly makes." Bound clearly refers 
to the banks of the stream, against which the current chafes, but 
which do not impede its onward flow. Cf. K. John, ii. 1. 441 : — 

" O, two such silver currents, when they join, 
Do glorify the banks that bound them in ; 
And two such shores to two such streams made one, 
Two such controlling bounds shall you be, kings, 
To these two princes, if you marry them." 

See also Id. iii. 1. 23 and v. 4. 55. 

28. Upon the heels of my present7nent. "As soon as my book 
has been presented to Lord Timon" (Johnson). 

31. This conies off well. This is well done. The expression (cf. 
M.for M. ii. I. 57 and L. L. L. iv. 1. 145) puzzled Johnson and 
Steevens ; but it seems natural enough now, when we use goes off 
well in much the same way. 

32. How this grace, etc. " How true to the life of the original 



Scene I] Notes 161 

is this graceful attitude! " (Clarke). This seems to me to be the 
clear meaning, but the passage has suffered much at the hands of 
the editors. Johnson thought it " obscure, and, however explained, 
not very forcible," the meaning being only " the gracefulness of 
this figure shows how it stands." He was inclined to read " speaks 
understanding." Steevens made it = " how the graceful attitude 
of this figure proclaims that it stands firm on its centre, or gives 
evidence in favour of its own fixure." Mason supposed the picture 
to be one of the Graces, and wanted to print " Grace " and to read 
" its " for his. Hudson thinks the meaning is, " How the graceful 
attitude of this figure expresses its firmness of character ! " If the 
reference were to the expression of character, I should take it to 
be graciousness rather than " firmness ; " especially if, as some sup- 
pose, the picture represented Timon as surrounded by the admir- 
ing recipients of his bounty. His = its; as often before its came 
into general use. 

35. To the dumbness, etc. One might easily supply language to 
dumb gesture so eloquent. There seems to be an allusion to the 
interpreter in the puppet-shows of the time, whose office it was to 
explain the action. Cf. Ham. iii. 2. 256, etc. See also Cymb. ii. 
4.82. 

39. Artificial strife. That is, art striving to outdo nature. 
Malone quotes V. and A. 291 : — 

" Look, when a painter would surpass the life, 
In limning out a well-proportion'd steed, 
His art with nature's workmanship at strife, 
As if the dead the living should excel," etc. 

Cf. also R. of L. 1374 : " In scorn of nature, art gave lifeless life ; " 
and just below (1377): "The red blood reek'd, to show the painter's 
strife." 

42. Happy man! The folios have " Happy men ! " which Rit- 
son, Clarke, and some others would retain ; but the emendation 
of Theobald is clearly favoured by the context. 

43. Moe ! More ; used only in the plural or collective sense. 

TIMON OF ATHENS — II 



1 62 Notes [Act i 

Cf. ii. i. 7, ii. 2. 117, iv. 3. 395, 432, below. Here and elsewhere 
in many modern eds. it is changed to " more." 

46. This beneath world. Cf. "this under globe" in Lear, ii. 2. 
170, etc. 

48. Halts not particularly. " Does not stop at any single char- 
acter " (Johnson). My free drift = " my spontaneous tribute" 
(Herford). 

49. A wide sea of wax. Unless this is intended to be an affected 
phrase, it is probably corrupt. The common explanation, that it 
refers to the ancient practice of writing on tablets covered with 
wax, seems a mere " trick of desperation ; " and I prefer, on the 
whole, Dr. Ingleby's suggestion that it may be " an affected and 
pedantic mode of indicating a sea that widens with the flood " — 
the "waxing tide" of T. A. iii. 1. 95 (cf. Cor. ii. 2. 103). In 
2 Hen. IV. i. 2. 180, Falstaff puns on wax in the sense of growth, 
but I cannot agree with Dr. Ingleby that the pun " would be insuf- 
ferable, not to say impossible, unless there were a substantive 
wax, meaning growth, on which to make the pun." It is enough 
for the fat knight that the substantive wax suggests waxing or 
" growth." 

No levelVd malice, etc. "To level is to aim, to point the shot 
at a mark. Shakespeare's meaning is, my poem is not a satire 
written with any particular view, or levelled at any single person ; 
I fly like an eagle into the general expanse of life, and leave not, 
by any private mischief, the trace of my passage" (Johnson). 

52. Tract. Changed by Hanmer to " track ; " but, as White 
notes, the words were used interchangeably. Cf. Sonn. 7. 12: 
"his low tract" (the sun's course). In Rich. II. iii. 3. 66 and 
Rich. III. v. 3. 20, the folios have tract, the quartos track. The 
latter form does not occur in the folios. 

53. Unbolt. Affectedly for unfold or explain. It is used lit- 
erally (of a gate) in T. and C. iv. 2. 3 ; the only other instance in S. 

59. Properties. Makes his property, appropriates. For the 
verb, cf. T. A r . iv. 2. 99 and K. John, v. 2. 79. 



Scene I] Notes 163 

60. Glass~fac } d. " That shows in his look, as by reflection, the 
looks of his patron" (Johnson). 

61. To Apemantus. The Poet, seeing that Apemantus paid fre- 
quent visits to Timon, naturally concluded that he was as much of 
a courtier as the other guests (Ritson). 

62. Abhor himself. Hanmer reads " make himself abhorr'd ; " 
to which the old text may be equivalent. In Oth. iv. 2. 162, 
" abhor me " is = fill me with abhorrence ; and here the idea may 
be that Apemantus makes himself abhorrent to others instead of 
trying to please or flatter them. 

67. Ranked with all deserts. " Covered with ranks of all kinds 
of men" (Johnson). 

69. To propagate their states. To advance their estates, or inter- 
ests. The interchangeable use of state and estate is common in S. 

73. Present slaves. Immediate slaves. The repetition is in 
Shakespeare's manner, but Walker conjectures " peasant slaves." 

74. Conceived to scope, " Properly imagined, appositely, to the 
purpose" (Johnson). 

79. In our condition. In our art ; that is, in painting. The 
passage may be = " would find a striking parallel in our state " 
(Schmidt). 

83. Sacrificial whisperings. " Whisperings of officious servility, 
the incense of the worshipping parasite to the patron as to a god " 
(Wakefield) ; " worshipping protestations in awe-stricken whis- 
pers" (Clarke). 

84. Through him Drink the free air. Breathe at his will only, 
or as if the free air were his gift. 

89. Slip. The folios have "sit;" corrected by Rowe. The 
1st folio has "hand" for hands. 

92. A thousand moral paintings, etc. " S. seems to intend in 
this dialogue to express some competition between the two great 
arts of imitation. Whatever the poet declares himself to have 
shown, the painter thinks he could have shown better" (Johnson). 

95. Mean eyes. The eyes of inferiors. Hanmer (followed by 



164 Notes [Act 1 

Hudson) reads "men's eyes" (the conjecture of Theobald) ; but 
no change is called for. 

96. The foot above the head. That is, the highest and the low- 
est changing places. 

The stage-direction in the folio is " Trumpets sound. E?iter 
Lord Timon, addressing himself e curteously to euery Sutor" 

99. Strait. Strict, exacting; as in M.for M. ii. 1. 9: "most 
strait in virtue," etc. 

101. Failing. The 2d folio adds "to him," and Capell reads 
" failing him." 

102. Periods. Puts a period to, ends ; the only instance of the 
verb in S. 

104. Must need me. " Cannot but want my assistance " 
(Malone). The 3d folio, followed by some editors, reads "most 
needs me." 

no. ^ T is not enough, etc. Johnson remarks: "This thought 
is better expressed by Dr. Madden in his Elegy on Archbishop 
Boulter ; — 

' More than they ask'd he gave ; and deem'd it mean 
Only to help the poor — to beg again.' " 

Steevens maliciously adds : " It has been said that Dr. Johnson 
was paid ten guineas by Dr. Madden for correcting this poem." 

112. Your honour! According to Steevens, this was a common 
address to a lord in the poet's time, being used interchangeably 
with your lordship. Cf. iii. 2. 27, 32, etc. 

123. Which holds a trencher. Who is a mere servant. Cf. 
L. L. L. v. 2. 477 : " Holding a trencher," etc. 

132. Therefore he will be, Timon. The folio omits the comma, 
which Theobald supplied. The verse is incomplete, and some- 
thing may have been lost ; but the editors have not been very 
happy in their attempts at emendation. Hanmer reads " will obey 
Timon." Johnson conjectured "well be him" (=1 wish him hap- 
piness) ; Theobald " he '11 be my son ; " and Capell " he will be 



Scene I] Notes 1 65 

Timon's servant here." Seymour suggests " in this he will be hon- 
est, Timon ; " and Singer " he will be rewarded, Timon." Hudson 
adopts the conjecture of Staunton, " will be Timon's," that is, 
"Timon's servant, or true to him." Staunton also suggests the 
following rearrangement : — 

" Timon. The man is honest, 

Therefore he will be — 

Old Athenian. Timon, 

His honesty rewards him," etc. 

Coleridge explains the text thus : " The meaning of the first line 
the poet himself explains, or rather unfolds, in the second. * The 
man is honest! ' — True; and for that very cause, and with no 
additional or extrinsic motive, he will be so. No man can be 
justly called honest, who is not so for honesty's sake, itself includ- 
ing its reward." This seems to be as satisfactory as any interpre- 
tation that has been given. The fact that honesty is its own reward 
is evidently opposed to the man's hopes of winning the old Athe- 
nian's daughter. Clarke thinks that the meaning is, " he will be 
honest enough to withdraw his suit, if you join with me to forbid 
him from resorting to my daughter." It is a slight objection to 
making Timon vocative, that the old man elsewhere addresses 
him as Lord Timon, most noble Timon, etc. Possibly some adjec- 
tive or title of respect has dropped out, with or without a part of 
the main sentence. 

134. Bear. Bear off, win. Cf. C. of E. v. I. 8 : "His word 
might bear my wealth at any time," etc. 

137. Levity 's. The reading of the 3d and 4th folios ; the earlier 
ones have " levities." 

152. A T ever may, etc. "Let me never henceforth consider any 
thing that I possess but as owed or due to you : held for your ser- 
vice, and at your disposal" (Johnson). Malone compares Macb. 
i. 6. 25 fol. 

162. These penciPd pictures, etc. " Pictures have no hypocrisy ; 
they are what they profess to be" (Johnson). 



1 66 Notes [Act i 

1 66. Gentleman. Some eds. follow Johnson in reading " gentle- 
men ; " but hand shows that the singular is right. For the vocative 
use without an adjective, cf. A. Y. L. i. 2. 257 : "Gentleman, Wear 
this for me," etc. 

168. Under praise. That is, in being praised so much; as the 
context shows. The jeweller takes it to be underpraise, which 
Steevens printed in 1773. 

171. Unclew me quite. Quite undo me; like a ball of thread 
unwound. S. uses unclew only here. 

174. Prized by their masters. ''Are rated according to the es- 
teem in which their possessor is held" (Johnson). For the use of 
ty 9 cf. Cor. iii. 2. 53 : — 

" Because that now it lies you on to speak 
To the people ; not by your own instruction, 
Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you," etc. 

183. When thou art Timon's dog, etc. That is, till you become 
a dog, and these knaves become honest — a far-off morrow to wait 
for. Explanation seems hardly called for ; but Hanmer thought it 
necessary to read " "When I am Timon's dog ; " and Johnson inter- 
preted the passage thus : M When thou hast gotten a better char- 
acter, and instead of being Timon as thou art, shalt be changed to 
Timon's dog, and become more worthy kindness and salutation." 

188-246. You know me . . . confound thee! Fleay, Furnivall, 
and others agree in assigning this passage to the writer who com- 
pleted the play ; as also 263-2S2 below. 

200. For the innocence. It may be a question whether this is to 
be taken literally or ironically. It has been suggested that " the 
cynic means that the picture has no spirit, no expression ; and dog- 
like he prefers it on that account." 

213. So thou apprehendest it, etc. I have no doubt that so is 
here = if, provided that, as Staunton makes it. The editors gen- 
erally put a semicolon after apprehendest it. 

216. Not so well as plain-dealing, etc. Steevens says : "Allud- 



Scene I] Notes 167 

ing to the proverb, * Plain-dealing is a jewel, but they that use it 
die beggars.' " 

217. Doit. The smallest of coins, a common metaphor for a 
trifle. Cf. Temp. ii. 2. 33, M. of V. i. 3. 141, etc. 

240. That I had no angry wit to be a lord. The reading of the 
folios, but quite certainly corrupt. Blackstone conjectured " Angry 
that I had no wit, — to be a lord," or "Angry to be a lord, — that 
I had no wit ; " and Malone " That I had no angry wit. — To be a 
lord ! " Rann veads " Angry that I had no wit to be a lord ; " Theo- 
bald " That I had so hungry a wit," etc. (the conjecture of War- 
burton) ; Singer "That I had an empty wit," etc.; and Hudson 
"That I had so wanted wit," etc. Heath proposes "That I had so 
wrong'd my wit ; " Mason, " That I had an angry wish ; " and White 
" That I had an angry fit," etc. 

Clarke says : " As it stands, it appears to us to bear the interpre- 
tation, 'That, being a lord, I should have no angry wit,' no faculty 
for acrimonious satire, — such as Apemantus prides himself upon 
possessing. The sentence also includes the effect of 'that I had 
given up (Apemantus's) angry wit in order to be a lord.' " This is 
perhaps the best of the attempts to explain the text, but it seems 
rather forced. If we simply strike out angry, we doubtless get the 
real meaning of the passage. The adjective is almost certainly 
wrong, but it is difficult to replace it satisfactorily. 

252. And when dinner 's done. The 1st folio omits " and," which 
the 2d supplies. " The dinner 's," and " our dinner 's " have also 
been proposed. Dyce has " you, when." 

253. Sights. The plural is used, as often, because more than one 
person is referred to. 

255. Aches. A dissyllable ; as in v. 1. 200 below, and in Tetnp. 
i. 2. 370. The noun was pronounced aitch, but the verb ake, as it 
was usually written and printed. Baret, in his Alvearie (1580), 
says : " Ake is the Verbe of the substantive ach, ch being turned 
into k." That the noun was pronounced like the name of the let- 
ter h is evident from a pun in Much Ado, iii. 4. 56 : — 



1 68 Notes [Act i 

" Beatrice. ... By my troth, I am exceeding ill ! Heigh-ho ! 
Margaret. For a hawk, a horse, or a husband? 
Beatrice. For the letter that begins them all, H." 

There is a similar joke in The World Runs upon Wheels, by John 
Taylor, the Water-Poet : " Every cart-horse doth know the letter 
G very understanding^ ; and H hath he in his bones." Boswell 
quotes an instance of this pronunciation from Swift, and Dyce one 
from Blackmore, a.d. 1705. When John Kemble first played Pros- 
pero in London, he pronounced aches in the Tempest passage as a 
dissyllable, which gave rise to a great dispute on the subject among 
critics. During this contest Mr. Kemble was laid up with sickness, 
and Mr. Cooke took his place in the play. Everybody listened 
eagerly for his pronunciation of aches ; but he left the whole line out; 
whereupon the following appeared in the papers as " Cooke's So- 
liloquy : " — 

" Aitches or akes, shall I speak both or either? 
If akes I violate my Shakespeare's measure — 
If aitches I shall give King Johnny pleasure ; 
I 've hit upon 't — by Jove, I '11 utter neither! " 

Ache rhymes with brake in V. and A. 875, and with sake in C. of E. 
iii. 1. 58. There is nothing anomalous in this use of ache and ake, 
as teachers and even critics (like the players just mentioned) have 
often supposed. Cf. speak and speech, break and breach, etc. It 
will be noticed that in all these pairs of words the noun has the 
^-sound and the verb the i-sound. So with some words that might 
not be at once recognized as examples of this class ; as bake and 
batch, make and match, etc. 

Starve. Paralyze, destroy. The verb originally meant to die ; 
and hence, transitively, to cause to die. The folio has " sterue " 
here ; as in M. of V. iv. I. 38, Cor. iv. 2. 51, etc. 

257. Strain. Stock, race ; as in/. C. v. 1. 59 : "the noblest of 
thy strain,' 7 etc. 

Note the inverted "Darwinism" here — man degenerating into 
the baboon — and the scientific precision of bred out in expressing it. 



Scene II] Notes 169 

260. Hungerly. Cf. Oth. iii. 4. 105 : " They eat us hungerly ; " 
and T. of S. iii. 2. 177: "his beard grew thin and hungerly." 

261. Depart Changed by Theobald to " do part ; " but depart 
was often = part. In the Marriage Service " till death us do part " 
is a corruption of " till death us depart." So part was sometimes 
= depart; as in iv. 2. 21 below. 

266. More accursed. The folios have " most ; " corrected by 
Hanmer. 

277. Unpeaceable. Quarrelsome ; not used by S. 

285. Meed. Merit, desert ; as in Ham. v. 2. 149 : " in his meed 
he 's unfellowed." See also 3 Hen. VI. ii. 1. 36 and iv. 8. 38. 

288. All use of quittance. All ordinary requital. Yov quittance 
in this sense, cf. Hen. V. ii. 2. 34 : " quittance of desert," etc. 

290. In fortunes. Mr. P. A. Daniel suggests " In 's fortune," 
and Hudson reads " In 's fortunes." 

291. I HI keep you company. Continued to 2 Lord in the 
folios ; corrected by Capell. 

Scene II. — Nothing of Shakespeare is discernible in this scene. 
The editors have taken a deal of pains to mend the halting metre, 
but it is hardly worth the trouble. 

12, 13. If our betters, etc. Warburton wished to give Dare to 
imitate, etc., to Apemantus, assuming that by our betters Timon 
means the gods, and that the cynic perversely takes it as referring 
to earthly potentates ; but no change is called for. As Johnson 
(who would omit If and at) remarks, " the whole is a trite and 
obvious thought, uttered by Timon with a kind of affected mod- 
esty." Heath paraphrases it thus : " The faults of rich persons, 
and which contribute to the increase of riches, wear a plausible 
appearance, and as the world goes are thought fair ; but they are 
faults notwithstanding." 

22. Hanged it, have you not? Malone sees an allusion to the 
proverbial expression, " Confess and be hanged." 

28. Ira furor brevis est. Anger is a brief madness ; a trite bit 



170 Notes [Act 1 

of Latin. Fleay, who thinks Tourneur completed the play, says 
that quoting Latin is a mark of his style ; but it was common 
enough with other playwrights of the time. 

Ever angry. The folio has " verie angrie ; " corrected by Rowe. 

32. Apperil. Peril ; a word not used by S. Malone could not 
find it in any dictionary, but Gifford quotes several instances of it 
from Jonson. The New Eng. Diet, gives no example except from 
this play and Jonson. 

Hudson reads " Let me not stay," on the ground that both sense 
and metre require it, and he refers to 25 above ; but what Ape- 
mantus says is equivalent to " Let me stay, but remember that it is 
at your peril." " I come to observe" he adds, " but I give thee fair 
warning of it." He scorns to be made welcome, and is prepared 
to be thrust out of doors if need be ; but he comes to stay and 
observe if Timon will allow it after he has bluntly declared his 
temper and purpose — and, being contemptuously tolerated, he 
does stay. 

35. I myself would have no power. "I myself would have no 
power to make thee silent, but I wish thou wouldst let my meat 
make thee silent. Timon, like a polite landlord, disclaims all power 
over the meanest or most troublesome of his guests" (Tyrwhitt). 

37. ' T would choke me, for, etc. " I could not swallow thy meat, 
for /could not pay for it with flattery" (Johnson). Being no flat- 
terer, he cannot eat what is prepared solely for flatterers. 

41. Cheers the7ji up too. Warburton conjectures "to 't" for too. 

44. Without k?iives. It was the custom in the poet's time for 
every guest to bring his own knife, which he sometimes whetted 
on a stone that hung behind the door (Ritson). If they had no 
knives they would eat less meat, and would be less likely to 
murder the host. 

51. My windpipe's dangerous notes. "The notes of the windpipe 
seem to be only the indications which show where the windpipe is " 
(Johnson). As Steevens remarks, there seems to be a quibble on 
windpipe and notes. 



Scene II] Notes 171 

52. Harness. That is, armour ; as often. 

53. In heart. An abbreviated " health : " I drink to you in 
heart, or heartily. 

58. Sinner. That is, a cause of sin. 

64. Fond. Foolish ; as very often. Cf. iii. 5. 42 below. 

71. Rich men sin. Farmer proposes "sing" for sin, and 
Singer, " dine." 

72. Dich. A word found nowhere else, but assumed to be a 
corruption of do it. It is passing strange that all the editors and 
critics have let it alone, but the Cambridge ed. records no attempt 
at emendation. I suspect that it is the one instance of the kind in 
all Shakespeare. Why may not the word be a misprint for do it or 
do H? Cf. M. W.'\. I. 82 : " much good do it your good heart ! " 
which seems to be the very same expression. 

88. For ever perfect. That is, perfectly happy. 

92. Why have you, etc. " Why are you distinguished from 
thousands by that title of endearment, was there not a particular 
connection and intercourse of tenderness between you and me?" 
(Johnson). Hudson adopts Heath's conjecture of " why have you 
not," etc., explaining the passage thus : " Why do not thousands 
more give you the loving title of friends, but that my heart has a 
special privilege of your friendship ? " Surely there is no need of 
emendation, when the text gives a clear and appropriate meaning 
as it stands. From often is = from among> and apart from, with- 
out a verb of motion. 

107. O joy, etc. " Timon, weeping with a kind of tender pleasure 
cries out, * O joy, e'en made away ' — destroyed, turned to tears 
— ' before it can be born ' — before it can be fully possessed " 
(Johnson). 

no. Thou weep'st, etc. The point of this is not quite clear. 
Johnson says : " The covert sense of Apemantus is, ■ what thou 
losest, they get.'" Heath explains it thus: "The words Thou 
weefist do not only refer to the tears then actually shed, but to 
those future ones for which Timon was laying the foundation ; . . . 



172 Notes [Act 1 

implying a prediction that the excess of drinking to which he was 
now encouraging his false friends would prove the source of tears 
to him flowing from real regret." Neither of these interpretations 
seems satisfactory. Perhaps the expression is nothing more than a 
cynical sneer at the incongruity of making his tears an occasion for 
their drinking. 

113. Like a babe. Johnson says: "that is, a weeping babe;" 
but it seems to be merely a carrying out of Timon's metaphor, with 
possibly a reminiscence of the idea of " looking babies in the eyes." 
Steevens compares Heywood, Lovers Mistress : " Joyed in his looks, 
look'd babies in his eyes ; " The Christian Turned Turk, 1 61 2: 
" She makes him sing songs to her, looks fortunes in his fists, and 
babies in his eyes," etc. 

116. Much! Ironical, of course. 

124. Enter Cupid. These masks were much in favour at the 
time when this part of the play was probably written. Ben Jonson 
did much to make them popular. 

Thee, worthy. Changed by Hanmer to " the worthy," on account 
of the third person in the next line ; but the old text is decidedly 
better. Cupid, after addressing Timon directly, as he ought, turns 
to the company and adds, " and to all that are here tasting of his 
bounties." 

127. Th? ear, etc. The folio gives the whole passage thus : — 

" Cup. Haile to thee worthy Timon and to all that of 
his Bounties taste : the fiue best Sences acknowledge thee 
their Patron, and come freely to gratulate thy plentious 
bosome. 

There tast, touch all, pleas'd from thy Table rise : 
They onely now come but to Feast thine eies." 

Theobald emended and arranged it thus : — 

" Hail to thee, worthy Timon, and to all 
That of his bounties taste ! the five best Senses 
Acknowledge thee their patron ; and do come 



Scene ii] Notes 173 

Freely to gratulate thy plenteous bosom : 

Th' Ear, Taste, Touch, Smell, pleas'd from thy Table rise, 

These only now come but to feast thine eyes." 

Capell altered " do come " to " are come ; " Steevens restored 
"They" for "These;" and Malone changed "pleas'd" to "all 
pleas'd." Rann arranged the lines as in the text, inserting the 
and after touch. 

131. Music, make their welcome! Pope reads "Let music 
make;" and Capell, "Music, make known their welcome." 

133. Hey-day. The early eds. have " Hoy-day ; " as in Rich, III 
iv. 4. 460 and T. and C. v. 1. 73 (folios). Hudson prints 133-140 
as prose, and it certainly is very lame verse, like a good deal of the 
non-Shakespearian part of the play. 

134. They are mad women. Steevens remarks that S. seems to 
have borrowed this idea from the puritanical writers of his own 
time. He cites Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses : " Dauncers thought to 
be mad men," etc. He adds that the thought may have been 
derived from Cicero, Or at. pro Murena : " Nemo enim fere saltat 
sobrius, nisi forte insanit." 

135. like madness, etc. "Just such madness is the glory of this 
life as the pomp of this feast appears when compared with the 
philosopher's frugal repast of a little oil and a few roots " (Clarke). 

141. Depraved . . . depraves. The word is here = " detract, 
slander" (Schmidt); as in the only instance in which S. uses it 
{Much Ado, v. 1. 95). 

142. Of their friends' gift? "That is, given them by their 
friends" (Johnson). 

147. Adoring of in the stage-direction (which is from the folio) 
is = paying honour to. 

150. lustre. The later folios have " lively lustre." 
153. My lord, you take us, etc. The folios give this speech to 
" 1 Lord ; " corrected by Steevens (the conjecture of Johnson and 
Heath). The mistake doubtless arose from the use of the abbre- 
viation L. for both Lord and Lady. 



i-M \~c:es [Act I 

I :: - :.:.::. .z: i^ffvf-s 

2 Zfor. 7F. ir. i. 161 : "A ratten case abides no handHng." 

15a Am idle immqueL C£ R. ami J. L 5. 124: "We hare a 

::■.- . :: :': . i-Sl ::;.:: :: 'i:^ I.: ■:::.■.: is :if:f. "_s = ifsseri 

See also 7: ^.£ v. 2. 9 : — 

: : : 11 : _ e : . i : : : : 5 e :_:«:: - 1 : ':_« •_! . 
Arte: : _: rre.i: r: : i :'ie e:. 

l"i:es :_.:-.r: . -.Li.sizzt:. :".;--:. -.'."; ;. : j: — 

- We "H dine in the great room, bat let Ac music 

A11 11.1: if : if ::t:i:t: ifif 

ir.i 7i;i : :. 7 ■: : •>::'..{.::'. 7 r :-: " : 1: -: ; : 11 i ; ::::i : : -i-Sf : fizz 
liree-sirre :: ; ::i 1: :r_e ; : ::. 11 : ir.r: ".:.:: i> i/e-.s 1 :ii::t:. ' 
I— _V; j •: .••.-.■;'.:' :"...■■•: There is 1 :_i:':i:r.r iL_s::i :; .-.-;.; 
= coin, for which d i. F. Z. n. 4. 12, 2 Hem, IV. L 2. 253, and 
L.L.L. L 2. 36. 

::: I T: see lie n _? - 

he: ~:iii5-:i . 

■• 7:: r_ r'r'eie?.: ::" 5.: 1! ' Jriiii :i . 
:-: .-:':-:.; -':_::./,' T11: is., ruse :: : : 1: 1 : _: : - -firing 
it (XLi. 175 above. 

199. State. Estate. See on L 1. 69 above. 
::-. Af{~. Hive 1 i : V-g :: if s :e :::. 

219. CaM to yim. Changed by Pope to " Call on yon," which is 

::: i: 1 :.fi: :.s ±1: is :i :": : lss -.rjLZ.it .:' i leei i: . 

For I'M &^jr^Hanmerhas"Iten yon;" bnt Dyce cites other 

::e s : : _" ". 11 : .1" 

221,222, Give; Metinmts. Changed :• Banana r f Iff 

:nzi:s. e:: 

::- JT/-: -' Air: : -. ' f : i'i"S _: ; 1 lie 
5_r:f=:s r; i :n: .:'.-.-; .:".--.V. is Fiisn- 5.175 : 77r-: ."■'. 1 ^ 1:5 . 
:.j: ~~ z'jl z \ -..-•.;' :i 11 f sei_se 1 .1 

. . = ::.: _i:i_i-i 1 s 5 e s ' liie- 
.rss e :••". :fi: :: ~i::i ::::_::. 



Scene I] Notes 175 

230. All to you. " All good wishes, or all happiness to you ! " 
(Steevens). Cf. Macb. iii. 4. 92: "And all to all!" But here it 
seems to be meant as a completion of the interrupted speech (as 
in what Timon has last said), and = " and I am entirely so to 
you." 

232. Coil Ado, " fuss." Cf. M. N. D. iii. 2. 339, C. of E. iii. 
I. 48, Much Ado, iii. 3. 100, v. 2. 98, etc. 

233. Serving of becks. Servile attention to becks, or nods. 

234. Legs. " He plays upon the word leg, as it signifies a limb, 
and a bow or act of obeisance" (Johnson). 

244. In paper. Apparently = in securities, or bonds. The mean- 
ing seems to be that Timon will exhaust his wealth by his gifts, and 
will have to give paper instead of gold, or get the gold by giving 
paper. Warburton conjectured "in proper," Hanmer reads "in 
perpetuum," and Hudson, " in person ; " but the old text is 
probably right. 

251. Thy heaven. Johnson explained this as " the pleasure of 
being flattered ; " but, as Mason remarks, it seems rather to mean 
" good advice, the only thing by which he could be saved." 



ACT II 



Scene I. — This scene is clearly Shakespeare's. 

I. And late five thousa?id, etc. The pointing is that of the folios. 
Steevens has " five thousand to Varro ; and to Isidore," etc. 

7. Moe. The later folios have "more." See on i. 1. 43 above. 
For twenty Pope reads "ten." Farmer conjectures "twain," and 
Singer "two." 

9. Foals me straight, etc. Straightway produces colts, and good 
ones too. The verb foal is used by S. only here, and the noun 
only in M. N. D. ii. 1. 46: "a filly foal." 

10. And able horses. The reading of the 1st and 2d folios ; the 
later ones have "An able horse." Theobald has "Ten able horse," 
and Hanmer " Ten able horses." 



176 Notes [Act n 

No porter, etc. Johnson imagined that a line following this, and 
describing the behaviour of a surly porter, has been lost ; but the 
porter, whose business is quite as much to keep out intruders as 
to admit those who have a right to enter, is contrasted with one 
who smilingly invites all that pass by to come in. Hudson adopts 
Staunton's conjecture of "grim porter." 

13. Found. The folios have "sound," though some have be- 
lieved the long s to be a worn or broken f Found is Hanmer's 
reading, and is generally adopted. The meaning seems to be, as 
Johnson explains it : " Reason cannot find his fortune to have any 
safe or solid foundation." Hudson thinks that sound (= " de- 
clare ") may be right. Collier retains it, and takes the meaning 
to be " no reason can sound Timon's state, and find it in safety." 

16. Importune. Regularly accented on the second syllable by 
S. Ceas'd = stopped, made to cease ; the only instance of the 
passive in S. 

18. The cap, etc. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. ii. 2. 125: "as ready as a 
borrower's cap," etc. See also ii. 2. 218 below. 

20. Uses. Occasions for use, necessities; as in iii. 2. 40 and 
v. I. 207 below. 

22. Fracted dates. Broken dates ; that is, broken promises to 
pay at a certain date. Fracted occurs again in Hen. V. ii. I. 130 
(Pistol's speech). 

31. Gull. A play upon the senses of unfledged bird and dupe. 
Cf. I Hen. IV. v. 1. 60 : " As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird." 
Boswell quotes Wilbraham, Glossary of Words used in Cheshire :■ 
"Gull, s. a naked gull; so are called all nestling birds in quite an 
unfledged state." 

32. Which. Who ; as often. 

34. I go, sir ! Omitted by some editors. Pope reads " Ay, go, 
sir." 

35. In compt. "That is, for the better computation of the in- 
terest due" (Schmidt). The folios have "in. Come ;" corrected 
by Theobald. 



Scene II] Notes 177 

Scene II. — 4. Nor resumes no care. And assumes no care, 
takes no care. Schmidt compares the use of rebate for bate, re- 
deliver for deliver, regreet for greet, etc. The folio has " resume " 
for resumes ; corrected by Rowe. 

5. Never mind, etc. The second infinitive seems to be used 
" indefinitely :" never mind was made to be so unwise by being so 
kind. It may, however, be the other infinitive that is so used : 
" never was a mind formed to be so kind by being so unwise " 
(Hudson). The general meaning is clear enough, but the con- 
struction is ambiguous. 

8. Round. Blunt, plain. Cf. T. N ii. 3. 102 : " I must be round 
with you," etc. 

9. Varro. The servants are addressed by the names of their 
masters. Cf. p. 157 above. Good even was used after noon, as 
good morrow before noon. 

12. Discharged! Paid; as in C. of E. iv. I. 32 : "I pray you, 
see him presently discharg'd," etc. 

I fear it That is, that we shall not be paid. 

14. We 7/ forth again. That is, to the hunt. As Reed notes, 
it was the custom in the time of S. to hunt after dinner as well as 
before it. Laneham, in his Account of the Enter taimnent at Kenil- 
worth Castle, mentions that Elizabeth, when the day was hot, " kept 
in till five a clok in the evening ; what time it pleaz'd her to ryde 
forth into the chase," etc. 

20. To the succession, etc. To the time of the new moon. 

23. That with your other noble parts, etc. " That you will be- 
have on this occasion in a manner consistent with your other noble 
qualities" (Steevens). 

38. Date-broke. The folios have " debt, broken ; " corrected 
by Steevens. Pope has " debt, of broken," and Hanmer simply 
" broken." 

42. Importunacy. Accented on the third syllable, as in T. G. 
of V. iv. 2. 112, the only other instance of the word in S. 

46. Pray, draw near. We have here very clearly an interpola- 

TIMON OF ATHENS — 12 



178 Notes [Act 11 

tion by the playwright who attempted to complete Shakespeare's 
work. He interrupts the natural course of the dialogue (which 
goes along smoothly if we " skip " to 130 below), in order to bring 
in this nonsensical talk of Apemantus with the Page and Fool. 
Johnson, not understanding this, suspected that some scene had 
been lost " in which the audience was informed that they were the 
fool and page of Phrvnia, Timandra, or some other courtesan." 

70. Gra?nercies. Literally, great thanks (Fr. grand merci). 
Hanmer reads " gramercy " here ; but the plural is used again in 
T. of S. i. I. 41, 168. 

72. To scald such chickens. There is an allusion to the treat- 
ment of certain diseases by sweating. Chickens is suggested by 
the old practice of scalding off the feathers of poultry, instead of 
plucking them (Henley). 

74. Corinth. A cant name for a brothel, suggested by the an- 
cient reputation of the Greek city. 

76. Mistress*. Here, as in 106 below, the folios have " masters " 
or " master's ; " corrected by Theobald. The mistake probably 
arose from the use of the abbreviation M in the MS., this being 
employed indiscriminately for both master and mistress. In M. of 
V. v. 1. 41, the folio has " Sola, did you see M. Lore?izo, & M. Lo- 
renzo, sola, sola ; " that is, as most editors give it, " Master Lorenzo 
and Mistress Lorenzo." 

88. To Lord Timon's. But they are now in Timon's house. 
Possibly the blundering writer forgot this for the moment, or the 
passage may have been at first intended for insertion somewhere 
else. Clarke thinks the reference is to Timon's banqueting-room 
or presence-chamber. 

103. To his servant. For his servant ; a common use of to ; as 
in "take to wife," etc. 

117. Artificial 07ie. For the allusion to the philosopher's stone, 
cf. 2 Hen. LV. iii. 2. 355 : "it shall go hard but I will make him a 
philosopher's two stones to me." 

133. Rated. Calculated, estimated. 



Scene II] Notes 179 

138. And that unaptness made your minister, etc. That is, made 
that disinclination serve as an excuse. The editor of the 2d folio, 
not seeing the construction, changed your to " you." 

142. Found. Here, as in ii. 1. 13 above, the 1st folio misprints 
"sound ; " corrected in the 2d folio. 

144. So much. " He does not mean so great a sum, but a cer- 
tain sum, as it might happen to be " (Malone). 

149. Loved lord. The 2d folio has " deare lov'd lord," and some 
modern eds. read " dear-lov'd lord." 

150. Though you hear now — too late ! — yet now 's a ti?ne, etc. 
" Though you now at last listen to my remonstrances, yet now your 
affairs are in such a state that the whole of your remaining fortune 
will scarce pay half your debts. You are therefore wise too late " 
(Malone). Hanmer reads "yet now 's too late a time." The 
Cambridge ed. points thus : " Though you hear now, too late ! — 
yet, now 's a time — " etc. 

151. Having. Property. Cf. M. W. iii. 2. 73 :" The gentleman 
is of no having ; " T. A 7 , iii. 4. 379 : " my having is not much," etc. 

156. At length. At last ; as often. Cf. R. of L. 1606, C. of E. 
i. I. 89, 113, Rich. II. v. 5. 74, etc. . 

159. The world is but a word! "As the world itself may be 
comprised in a word, you might give it away in a breath " (War- 
burton). 

162. Husbandry. Economy, good management. For falsehood, 
Seymour conjectures " truth," and the Cambridge editors " of false- 
hood." 

164. Set me on the proof. Put me to the test. 

165. Offices. The parts of the mansion where food was prepared 
and kept. Cf. Rich. II. i. 2. 69, Oth. ii. 2. 9, etc. 

166. Feeders. "Parasites" (Schmidt); as in A. and C. iii. 13. 
109 : " one that looks on feeders." Some make it = servants. 

167. Spilth. Spilling, waste ; used by S. only here. 

169. Wakeful couch. The early eds. have "wastefull cocke," 
which the Cambridge editors, Dyce, White, and Clarke retain. The 



1 80 Notes [Act 11 

last thinks that " Flavius is referring to one of those taps of the 
wine-casks in the vaults he has mentioned, which, wastefully flow- 
ing with liquor, he has mournfully stood beside and let his tears 
flow in emulation." If this explanation is correct, I cannot help 
thinking that it would have been more to the steward's credit if 
he had stopped the spilth of wine before setting his eyes at flow. 
Wakeful couch was suggested by Swynfen Jervis, and the wakeful 
is favoured by the fact that in the compositor's " case " the type for 
st (one character in the old style) and for the k were in contigu- 
ous boxes, and in " distributing " type an st might sometimes get 
into the k box by mistake. As Dr. Ingleby (Shak. Hermeneutics, 
p. 118) adds: "Not improbably wakefull in the 'copy' suggested 
cock to the mind of the workman instead of couch, by the power 
of association ; the barn- cock being often called the wakeful bird, 
or the wakeful cock." For "wasteful cock," Pope substituted 
"lonely room," and Daniel proposed "wakeful cot." Staunton 
conjectures "retir'd (me too a wasteful cock)," etc. Herford 
retains the old text, but, if a change is to be made, favours 
Jackson's conjecture of "wakeful cock" (= "cockloft, where Fla- 
vius remained sleepless"). He would explain "wasteful cock" as 
Clarke does. 

173. Who is not Lord Timor? s? The folios omit Lord, which 
Steevens supplied. 

178. Feast-won, fast-lost. Won by feasting, lost by fasting. 
There is a play on feast (pronounced faist) and fast. 

179. Are couch 1 d. That is, disappear "like butterflies," that 
" show not their mealy wings but to the summer " ( T. and C. iii. 

3- 79). 

183. Secure thy heart. Reassure thyself, be confident. Cf. Oth. 
i. 3. 10 : "I do not so secure me in the error " (I am not so con- 
fident), etc. 

185. Argument. Contents ; apparently suggested by the use 
of the word for an outline of the matter contained in a book. Cf. 
the introductory "argument" of R. of L. 



Scene II] Notes 181 

187. Assurance bless your thoughts! May your thoughts hap- 
pily prove true ! 

188. Croivrtd. " Dignified, adorned, made respectable " (Stee- 
vens). 

189. That. So that ; as often. 

192. Flaminius. The folios have "F/auius;" corrected by 
Rowe. See p. 158 above. 

194-201. You to Lord Lucullus . . . hum! Fleay believes that 
this is not Shakespeare's ; and that the next speech (" Go you, sir, 
to the Senators," etc.) is addressed to one of the servants. Furni- 
vall gives good reasons for doubting this : " The Steward, in an- 
swer to this request, says that he has already asked the Senators ; 
and he gives Timon their answer, that they will not lend the money. 
Timon, however, does not get angry about their refusal ; he merely 
explains it and excuses it : — 

' These old fellows 
Have their ingratitude in them hereditary ; 
Their blood is cak'd, 't is cold, it seldom flows.' 

Thus the refusal of these old curmudgeons does not affect Timon, 
does not anger him at all. It is his own personal friends that he 
relies on, and whose refusal he thinks impossible. Again, if S. 
only sent to the Senators and Ventidius, he would have left, as the 
cause of the entire and terrible change in Timon's nature, nothing 
but the refusal of one false friend, Ventidius ; and this, when the 
refusal is not given in the play, except by reference. I cannot 
believe that S. would make the ingratitude of one man the sole 
cause of Timon's entire change of character. This would not be 
motive enough ; we must have refusal and ingratitude from more 
friends than one ; and I therefore believe that S. wrote these few 
prose words ordering the servants to go to Lucius and Lucullus 
(and possibly to Sempronius), as well as the Steward to go, first 
to the Senators, and then — that having been already tried — to 
Ventidius. It is quite possible that the expander of the play put 
in the sentence, 'You to Sempronius' (the third friend), for S. 



1 82 Notes [Act m 

has not introduced a third servant by name. But this is not cer- 
tain, as the direction of the folio is ' Enter three Servants? and a 
fourth false friend, and a fourth refusal, help to strengthen the 
motive for Timon's change of character." 

206. Most general way. That is, " co?npendious, the way to try 
many at a time " (Johnson) ; or, perhaps, simply = " ordinary, 
common," as Schmidt makes it. 

211. At fall. At a low ebb (Steevens). 

216. Intending. Pretending ; as in Much Ado, ii. 2. 35 ; T. of 
S. iv. I. 206, etc. Johnson made it = " regarding, turning their 
notice to other things." 

217. Hard fractions. "Broken hints, interrupted sentences, 
abrupt remarks " (Johnson). 

218. Half caps. Half-salutations. " A half-cap is a cap slightly 
moved, not put off" (Johnson). For cap, cf. ii. 1. 18 above. Cold- 
moving = coldly moving, or indicating coldness by the motion. 

220. Cheerly. Cheerily, cheerfully. Cf. A. Y. Z. ii. 6. 14 : 
" thou lookest cheerly," etc. 

221. Hereditary. "By natural constitution" (Warburton). 

227. Ingeniously. Ingenuously, from the heart ; the only in- 
stance of the adverb in S. Ingenious and ingenuous are used 
indiscriminately in the early eds. The 4th folio has "ingenuously." 

233. Good. Substantial, real. Cf. iii. 2. 44, where Servilius 
substantially quotes his master's words. 
239. Free. "Liberal" (Johnson). 



ACT III 



Scene I. — This entire act, except a portion of the last scene, 
is evidently the work of the expander of the play. 

8. Respectively. Regardfully. Cf. respective in M. of V. v. I. 
156 : "You should have been respective, and have kept it." 

20. Talents. The Greek gold talent was worth about $1200 ; 
but here the word is probably used rather loosely. 



Scene II] Notes 1 83 

30. Honesty. Liberality, generosity (Mason and Schmidt). 

37. Towardly. "Ready to do or to learn, docile, tractable" 
(Schmidt) ; not used by S. 

46. Solidares. Steevens says : " I believe this coin is from the 
mint of the poet." It seems to have been suggested by the Italian 
soldo, which Florio defines as " a coine called a shilling, the pay 
due to soldiers and men of warre." 

50. And we alive that liv'd? "And we who were alive then, 
alive now ; as much as to say, in so short a time" (Warburton). 

55. Let molten coin, etc. Steevens suggests that the allusion is 
to the punishment inflicted on M. Aquilius by Mithridates. He 
also quotes The Shepherd's Calendar, where Lazarus says that he 
saw in hell " a great number of wide cauldrons and kettles, full of 
boyling lead and oyle, with other hot metals molten, in the which 
were plunged and dipped the covetous men and women, for to 
fulfill and replenish them of their insatiate covetise ; " and the 
old ballad of The Dead Man's Song : — 

11 And ladles full of melted gold 
Were poured downe their throotes." 

59. Passion, Explained by Steevens and Hudson as " suffering; " 
but I am inclined to think, with Clarke, that the meaning is, " I 
feel what my master's emotion will be." 

60. Unto his honour. Perhaps spoken ironically of the pre- 
tensions of Lucullus to be regarded as a man of honour. Pope 
reads, " Unto this hour ; " and Dyce, " slander Unto his honour." 
Singer conjectures " slave Unto dishonour." 

64. Nature. Changed by Hanmer to " nurture." Daniel con- 
jectures " of 's nature." 

66. His hour ! Perhaps his — its, as often ; or " of sickness " 
or " of suffering " may be understood, as Clarke suggests. 

Scene II. — 3. We know him for no less. " That is, know him 
by report to be no less " (Johnson). 



184 Notes [Act in 

12. So many. Changed by Theobald to " fifty;* 1 but, as Steevens 

remarks, the stranger might not know the exact sum. See also on 
25 below. 

23. Had he mistook him, etc. The meaning seems to be, as 
Mason explains it, had he made the mistake of applying to me, 
who am not under so great obligations to him. 

25. So many. Here again Theobald reads "fifty." Steevens 
thinks that the servant hands Lucius a note. But it must be con- 
fessed that money matters are a good deal "mixed" in the play. 
In ii. 2. iSS above, the thousand talents (equivalent to about a 
million a rttr of dollars) seems a preposterous sum. Per- 

haps, as Fleay suggests, it should be pieces instead of talents. The 
three sums of fifty talents each, which Timoo afterwards tries 
get from his friends, would amount to more than $180,000. So 
many may have been written here, because the playwright was in 
doubt what sum to make it, and subsequently overlooked it. 

In 42 just below cannot -want doubtless means cannot lack for, 
and the ji/ty- fiie hundred talents is a random piece of exaggeration. 
If it means 5500 talents, the sum would be more than six mill: 
of dollars* If we read "fifty — rive hundred," the larger sum 
would be about $600,000. Hanmer reads M fifty times five hun- 
dred."' 

31. Virtuous. " Caused by his virtue" (Schmidt). Warburton 
thought it = M strong, forcible, pressing." Malone compares it 
with " good necessity " in ii. 2. 233 above, where he takes good to 
be = honest. 

51. For a little part. A puzzling expression. Theobald reads, 
■. a little dirt ; n and Hanmer the same, with the omission of 
Heath conjectures " profit " for part, and Johnson "park." 
Mason proposes " port " = " show, or magnificence." Hudson 
adopts Jackson's conjecture, "and, for a little part, undo," etc. 
Schmidt make- = a little. Steevens thinks the mean- 

ing may be : " By purchasing what brought me little honour, I 
have lost the more honourable opportunity of supplying the wants 



Scene Hi] Notes 185 

of my friend." This is perhaps the best that can be done with the 
text as it stands ; but I suspect some corruption. 

53. To do — . Capell reads, "do 't ; " but perhaps, as Clarke 
remarks, " Lucullus is speaking disjointedly, pouring forth his hol- 
low pretences and sham excuses with half-expressed sentences, in 
which he gets entangled." 

70. Spirit. The folios have " sport ; " corrected by Theobald. 

79. In respect of his. " What Lucius denies to Timon is, in 
proportion to what Lucius possesses, less than the usual alms 
given by good men to beggars" (Johnson). For his "this" has 
been suggested, and is very plausible. 

%%. I would have put my wealth, etc. " I would have treated 
my wealth as if it had been Timon's gift, and would have sent him 
back the larger half" (Clarke). This was Steevens's interpreta- 
tion at first, but he afterwards decided on the following, which is 
perhaps to be preferred : "The best half of my wealth should 
have been the reply I would have made to Timon ; I would have 
answered his requisition with the best half of what I am worth." 
Or returned may be = "become the share of" (Evans). Cf. Ham. 

i. 1. 92 : — 

11 A moiety competent 
Was gaged by our king, which had return'd 
To the inheritance of Fortinbras, 
Had he been vanquisher," etc. 

Scene III. — 4. All these. Pope adds " three " for the sake of 
the measure. Much ingenuity has been wasted by editors in " cor- 
recting" the metre of these non-Shakespearian parts of the play. 
Hudson, in a note on a preceding passage, justifies these bold 
alterations on the ground that, as the workmanship is not Shake- 
speare's, it " has not the sacredness that rightly belongs to his 
admitted text." To me this seems an excellent reason for letting 
it alone, except in obvious misprints and corruptions. 

6. Touctid. Tested, as with a touchstone. Cf. iv. 3. 387 below. 
See also K.John, iii. 1. 100 : " touch'd and tried," etc. 



1 86 Notes [Act in 

7. How ! have they denied him ? As a sample of the freedom 
with which the editors have " reconstructed " the halting measures 
of the old playwright, here is Hanmer's version of the present 
passage : — 

" How ? deny'd him ? 
Have Lucius and Ventidius and Lucullus 
Deny'd him all ? and does he send to me ? 
It shews," etc. 

Capell " fixes it up " thus : — 

" How ! have they deny'd him ? 
Has Lucius, and Ventidius, and Lucullus, 
Deny'd him, say you ? and does he send to me ? 
Three ? hum ! 
It shews," etc. 

I do not care to fill my pages with these "modern improvements" 
of the anonymous original, which has a kind of interest from its 
very clumsiness. 

12. Thrice give hurt over. The 1st folio has "Thriue, giue him 
ouer ; " the 2d, " That thriu'd," etc. Pope reads " Three give him 
over?" and Hanmer "Tried give him over." Thrice was sug- 
gested by Johnson, and is adopted by many editors. Some retain 
" thrive," making it mean " thrive or flourish, themselves," while 
they give up their patients as hopeless. 

20. So I may prove. The 1st folio has "it" for /, which was 
suggested by Staunton. The 2d folio (followed by many editors) 
inserts "/" before y mongst in the next line. 

24. Courage. Heart, disposition. S. uses the word similarly in 
Cor. iii. 3. 92, iv. 1. 3, etc. 

31. Set him clear. That is, baffle the devil, outdo him at his 
own weapons (Warburton). Him refers to ma?i. Johnson and 
Mason make crossed = " exempted from evil ; " and they assume 
that it is the devil who is to be set clear of the guilt of tempting 
man. Mason says : " Servilius means to say that the devil did not 



Scene IV] Notes 187 

foresee the advantage that would arise to himself from thence, 
when he made man politic : he redeemed himself by it, for men 
will, in the end, become so much more villanous than he is that 
they will set him clear ; he will appear innocent when compared 
with them." Steevens, after giving " the notes of all the commen- 
tators," says that he is "in the state of Dr. Warburton's devil — 
puzzled, instead of being set clear by them." 
33. Under, Under the plea or pretence of. 

36. Best. If this be the correct reading, it must be = that 
which he most depended on, if the others should fail. Dyce 
adopts Walker's conjecture of " last," which is extremely plausi- 
ble. 

37. The gods only. The early eds. have " only the gods ; " 
probably an accidental transposition, as Pope regarded it. Staun- 
ton would point thus : — 

11 now all are fled : 
Save the gods only, now his friends are dead," etc. 

38. Wards. Explained by Hudson as " keepers ; " but it is 
probably = " bolts," as Schmidt gives it. Cf. R. of L. 303 : — 

"The locks between her chamber and his will, 
Each one by him enforc'd, retires his ward." 

See also Sonn. 48. 4. 

42. Keep his house. "That is, keep within doors for fear of 
duns" (Johnson). 

Scene IV. — 9. Seen yet ? That is, to be seen. 

12. Prodigal. Changed by Theobald to " prodigal's." 

13. Like the sun's. "That is, like him in blaze and splen- 
dour" (Johnson). 

15. One may reach deep enough, etc. Steevens is inclined to 
"run the metaphor into the ground" after this fashion : "Still, 
perhaps, alluding to the effects of winter, during which some ani- 
mals are obliged to seek their scanty provision through a depth 



1 88 Notes [Act in 

of snow.'* Of course the metaphor in winter is independent of 
what follows. 

25. This charge. "This commission, this employment " (John- 
son). 

44. By your leave, sir. The folios assign this speech to " 2. 
Varro," which was perhaps meant for Both Serz'ants of Varro, 
as Dyce understands it. 

45. My friends? The early eds. have "my friend ; " but Dyce 
is probably right in changing it to the plural. 

71. His comfortable temper, etc. Dr. Bucknill (Mad Folk of S^) 
remarks : " Here, as in Lear and Constance, the poet takes care 
to mark the concurrence of physical with moral causes of insanity.' 1 

87. And mine, my lord. The folios give this to "1 Var.;" 
corrected by Capell. Malone makes the prefix " Hor. Sen." 
See p. 157 above. 

90. Knock me dozvn with 'em. A play upon bills, which also 
meant a weapon. Cf. A. V. L. i. 2. 131 and Much Ado, iii. 3. 
191. 

112. Lucius, Lticullus, etc. The 1st folio reads: "Lucius, 
Luadlus, and Sempronius Vllorxa : All," etc. The " Vllorxa" 
has been a stumbling-block to the critics, and various emenda- 
tions have been proposed. Collier conjectures "all, look, sir," 
or " Sempronius — Flav. Alack, sir ; " the Cambridge editors, 
" all, sirrah, all," etc. The most plausible suggestion, in my 
opinion, is that of White (which had occurred independently to 
Clarke) that Vllorxa is a misprint for Ventidius. The fact that 
it is in italics and begins with a capital renders it probable that it 
is the corruption of a proper name. On the whole, however, I 
prefer (with Dyce and others) to strike it out, as the verse is com- 
plete without it. The 2d folio drops it, but misprints " add Sem- 
pronius : all." 

Scene V. — 14. His fate. His hard destiny. Pope reads "his 
fault," and Hudson " this fault." 



Scene V] Notes 189 

17. An honour. The folios have "And" for an; corrected by 
Johnson. Rowe transposed lines 16 and 17. 

21. Unnoted. Perhaps = " imperceptible," as Malone and 
Schmidt explain it. It may, however, be one of the many 
instances of passive forms used actively and = " undemonstra- 
tive " (Clarke). 

22. Behave. Control, govern. The folios have " behoove ; " 
corrected by Rowe. It has been suggested that perhaps we 
should read and point thus : — 

" And with such sober and unnoted passion 
He did behave, his anger was, ere spent, 
As if he had but prov'd an argument." 

24. Undergo. Undertake, strive to maintain. 

32. Breathe. Utter, speak ; as in 59 below. 

34. Prefer his injuries to his heart. That is, take them to 
heart. 

36. Enforce us kill. The omission of to with the infinitive 
where we now insert it is not rare in S. 

42. Fond. Foolish ; as in i. 2. 59 above. 

46. Make. Do. Cf. A. Y. L. L.I. 31, Ham. i. 2. 164, ii. 2. 
277, etc. 

47. Abroad? "In the field" (Johnson). 

49. Felon. The folios have " fellow ; " corrected by Johnson. 

50. Loaden. Cf. I Hen. IV. i. I. 37 : "A post from Wales, 
loaden with heavy news," etc. It is used by S. oftener than laden. 

54. Gust. I am inclined to think this is = taste, appetite, as 
Johnson and Clarke make it. Steevens and Hudson think that the 
metaphor is taken from a gust of wind. Cf. T. N. i. 3. 33 : " the 
gust he hath in quarrelling," etc. 

55. By mercy. Probably = by your leave, if you will pardon me. 
Johnson explains the passage thus : " I call Mercy herself to wit- 
ness that defensive violence is just ; " and Malone : " Homicide in 
our own defence, by a merciful and lenient interpretation of the 
laws, is considered as justifiable." 



190 Notes [Act in 

63. He has. The he was inserted by Capell ; perhaps -ir.r.ects- 
sarily, as the ellipsis of the subject is not rare. 
75. Inferred. Alleged. Ct RidL III. iiL 5. 75, 

-: Parts. Merits. It is used for characteristic qualities or 
actions, good or bad — merits or demerits. Cf. T. X. v. i, 369, 

:. 2. 31. :. 3. 254. etc. 
-: 7: his. In addition to his. Cf. Macb. iii. 1. 52 : — 

" And to that dauntless temper of his mind 
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour.** 

So. Far I imam. Because I know. Johnson says : •• He charges 
them obliquely with being usurers." 

88. Another. That is, " another blood than his own n (Dyce) . 

94. Prove so base. Be compelled so to debase or degrade my- 
self. The ellipsis ::" .:; is common. 

ici. Attend. Await, expect ; as often. 

Swell our spirit. That is, swell it with anger, become yet more 
exasperated "irburton reads "And (now : swell your spirit)," 
Capell, u And not to swell your spirit," and Hudson, " And, to quell 
your spirit," suggested by the conjecture of Singer, " And, not to 
quell our spirit." 

104. Only in bone, etc. If this is not corrupt, the meaning must 
be, u that you may live to be mere skeletons, and scare men from 
looking at you ?? (Clarke). Staunton conjectures "at home" or 
u in doors ; n and Dr. Ingleby, " only in bed." 

114. Lay for hearts. "Strive to entrap, to captivate hearts'' 
(Schmidt), "endeavour to win popular affection" (Clarke). I 
may allude to laying traps (c£ 2 Gen: VL iv. 10.4 : "all the coun- 
try is laid for me"), or lay for may be used like the modern lay 
one's self out for. Baret has "To laie for a thing before it come ; 
prtetendo? 

115. ' T is honour, e: :. "Thai :s. governments are in general so 
ill administered that there are very few whom it is not an honour 
to oppose" (Heath). Clarke thinks it may be only the general's 



Scene vi] Notes 191 

way of saying, " the more war the more glory ; " but Heath's 
explanation seems to suit the context better. 

Scene VI. — 4. Tiring. Eagerly intent ; or as in V. and A. 

55: — 

" Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast, 

Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh, and bone " 

(that is, seizes and ravenously tears it). See also Cymb. iii. 

4- 97- 

10. Many my near occasions. Cf. A. and C. i. 2. 189: "many 
our contriving friends," etc. 

25. With all my heart, etc. It may be a question whether the 
Shakespearian part of the scene does not begin here rather than at 
71 below, as Fleay makes it. Certainly there are touches here and 
there that remind us of S. Perhaps we have a mixture of the two 
hands in this prose introduction to the banquet. 

35. Harshly o 1 the trumpet's sound. The Variorum of 1 821 has 
" on " for o\ Dyce and Hudson adopt the conjecture of White : 
" harshly. O, the trumpets sound ; " but, as White himself says, 
the folio contraction " o' th' " is against this reading. 

47. Your better remembrance. "Your remembrance of better 
things than such a trifle " (Clarke) ; or your memory which might 
be better occupied. Cf. Cor. i. 3. 117 : "she will but disease our 
better mirth " (that is, which would be better, or greater, without 
her company). Some make better — too good; the comparative 
being used as in a familiar Latin idiom. 

62. Toward. Ready, at hand. Cf. T. of S. i. I. 68 : "here 's 
some good pastime toward," etc. 

72. You great benefactors, etc. This "grace" can hardly be 
Shakespeare's. 

82. Fees. " Property" (Schmidt) ; or, perhaps, as Capell makes 
it, " those who are forfeit to your vengeance." Most editors adopt, 
as Hanmer did, Warburton's conjecture of "foes; " but the old 
text certainly gives a satisfactory sense. Mr. Joseph Crosby (in a 



192 Notes [Act in 

private letter) says : " Fees is a much more forcible as well as more 
appropriate word here. All men are not the foes of the gods ; but 
all men, senators, as well as * tag-rag and bobtail,' are the fees of 
the gods, inasmuch as they hold their lives and properties in fee 
from them." 

83. Lag. The folios have " legge " or " leg ; " corrected by 
Rowe. There is little choice between lag and "tag," which is a 
conjecture mentioned by Rann and adopted by Hudson. 

93. Is your perfection. " Is the highest of your excellence " 
(Johnson); or "is your perfect image" (Clarke). 

94. With your flatteries. The folios have " you with flatteries," 
which some have defended. Fleay, for instance, says : " An infe- 
rior author would not have thought of the flattery Timon had used 
to his false friends, but of their adulations to him, and would have 
written ' spangled with your flatteries.' " I cannot agree with him. 
There is no reason why Timon should speak with contempt of his 
bounty to them, and in no sense, literal or figurative, could he wash 
it off (and, if he could, how throw it in their faces as their " reeking 
villany?"); but he now sees and scorns the poor, superficial "flat- 
teries " with which they have repaid his frank generosity, and would 
fain wash himself clean of the villanous adulation. It is a natural 
and forcible use of figurative language to symbolize this repudiation 
of their sycophancy by the water he throws in their faces. This is 
the fitting banquet to which he has invited them, and to which they 
have hastened, shamelessly prompt to renew the old flattery now 
that they suppose him rich, after having refused to help him when 
they thought him in need. The only feast he has spread for them 
is the wretched stuff with which they have bespattered him, now 
washed off and flung back with bitterest imprecations. This is very 
Shakespeare, and not the conception of any " inferior author." 

99. Time's flies. " Flies of a season " (Johnson) ; or such sum- 
mer-flies as are referred to in ii. 2. 179 above. 

100. Cap and knee slaves. Cf. I Hen. IV. iv. 3. 68 : "The more 
and less came in with cap and knee; " Cor, ii. I. 77: "ambitious 



Scene VI] Notes 193 

for poor knaves' caps and legs," etc. See also ii. I. 18 and ii. 2. 
218 above. 

Minute-jacks ! According to Schmidt, Jacks, or contemptible 
fellows (cf. Much Ado, v. 1. 91, etc.), who change their minds every 
minute ; but it may refer, as commonly explained, to the Jacks-of- 
the-clock, or figures that struck the bell in old clocks. Cf. Rich. II. 
v. 5. 60. 

101. Of man and beast, etc. " Every kind of disease incident to 
man and beast" (Johnson). For infinite, White conjectures "in- 
fectious." 

104. There is no stage-direction here in the folios, but the editors 
generally have adopted Rowe's " Throws the dishes at them, and 
drives them out" It is curious that they seem even to regard this 
addition by a modern editor as of more authority than the original 
text ; for Steevens and others have been troubled by the mention 
of stones in 124 just below. In a note on that line, Steevens says : 
" As Timon has thrown nothing at his worthless guests except warm 
water and empty dishes, I am induced, with Mr. Malone, to believe 
that the more ancient drama [the MS. play mentioned above, 
p. 15] had been read by our author, and that he supposed he had 
introduced from it the * painted stones'' as part of his banquet ; 
though in reality he had omitted them. The present mention 
therefore of such missiles appears to want propriety." Many of 
the more recent editors have repeated this criticism without 
perceiving the " anachronism " in it. It strikes me that, as the 
author (not S.) did not see the "propriety" of making his text 
conform to Rowe's stage-direction, it may be well to adapt the 
stage-direction to the text. I therefore give the one suggested by 
Walker. 

Fleay, however, may be right in assuming that Timon throws only 
water at his guests, and that the expander of the play added the 
reference to stones (suggested by the earlier play, which he had 
read, though S. probably had not) without noticing the incon- 
gruity. The repeated doses of physic in 103 may be additional 

TIMON OF ATHENS — 13 



1 94 Notes [Act iv 

dishes of water, and the money in the next line may be only a 
change of metaphor, not of missiles. 

112. Push! An old form of pish. Schmidt (like Rowe) sees 
this interjection in Much Ado, v. I. 38, but there it is certainly 
the noun push. 

115. Humour. Caprice; as often. 



ACT IV 

Scene I. — This scene is Shakespeare's beyond a doubt. 

6. General filths. Common prostitutes. For the personal use, 
cf. Temp. i. 2. 346, Lear, iv. 2. 39, Oth. v. 2. 231, etc. 

7. Convert. Turn. For the intransitive use, cf. Much Ado, i. I. 
123: "Courtesy herself must convert to disdain; " and see also 
R. of L. 592, Rich. II v. 1. 66, v. 3. 64, Macb. iv. 3. 229, etc. 

12. Pill. Pillage, plunder ; as in Rich. III. i. 3. 159 : " In shar- 
ing that which you have pill'd from me," etc. 
14. Lin'd. Padded, stuffed. 
18. Mysteries. Professions, callings ; as in iv. 3. 433 below, etc. 

20. Confounding contraries. " Contrarieties whose nature it is 
to waste or destroy each other " (Steevens). Confound'^ often = 
ruin, destroy. Cf. 37 below. 

21. Let. The folios have " yet ; " corrected by Hanmer. John- 
son defends " yet ; " while, on the other hand, White says that let 
is absolutely required. Let is generally adopted. 

25. Liberty. Libertinism ; as in M. for M. i. 3. 29, i. 4. 62, etc. 

32. Merely. Absolutely, altogether; as often. Cf. iv. 3. 516 
below. 

33. Detestable. Accented on the first syllable, as regularly in S. 
Hanmer, not understanding this, reads " town detestable. " 

34. Multiplying bans ! " Accumulated curses " (Steevens). 

36. More kinder. Double comparatives and superlatives are 
common in S. and other writers of the time. 

40. Mankind. Accented on the first syllable here, as regularly 



Scene II] Notes 195 

in other plays ; but on the second in 36 above and iv. 3. 23, 53, 
485 below. 

Scene II. — 7. To take his fortune by the arm. As Clarke 
notes, this is " one of those familiar — almost homely — images, 
that would very naturally present itself to a serving-man's mind, 
and is therefore so peculiarly characteristic." 

9. From our companion, etc. Mason conjectured that from and 
to in the next line had been accidentally transposed, and Hudson 
transposes them accordingly; but I have no doubt that the text is 
correct, and it is quite like Shakespeare. Turn our backs is = turn 
avv 'ay , and familiars to his fortunes = familiar with his fortunes. 
White and Clarke also defend the old reading. Hanmer and 
Dyce read From our and " from his." 

13. A dedicated beggar to the air. That is, a beggar dedicated, 
or giving himself to, the air. For the transposition, cf. Hen. VIII, 
iii. 1. 134: " A constant woman to her husband," etc. 

15. Like contempt. Like one despised. Cf. 32 below. See 
also T. N. ii. 5. 224, etc. 

19. Leaked. Leaking, leaky ; another example of passive forms 
used actively. 

20. The dying deck. " Just one of those expressions that enrap- 
ture a poetic mind, and disturb a prosaic one" (Clarke). It is 
thoroughly Shakespearian; yet Fleay assigned this part of the 
scene to the expander of the play until Furnivall pointed out the 
mistake he had made. See Trans, of New Shaks. Soc. for 1874, 
p. 242. Cf. " dying bed." 

21. Part. Depart ; as often. See on i. 1. 261 above. 

22. Into this sea of air. Dr. Ingleby (6*. Hermeneutics, p. 87) 
says: "The sea of air is that into which the soul, freighting his 
wrecked bark the body, must at length take its flight. Cf. Dray- 
ton's Battle of Agincoiirt : — 

1 Now where both armies got upon that ground, 
As on a stage, where they their strengths must try, 



196 Notes [Act iv 

Whence from the width of ma?iy a gaping wound 
There 's many a soul into the air must fly .' " 

30. 0, the fierce wretchedness, etc. Here we clearly descend to 
an addition by the poetaster who filled out the play. Fierce is 
used in an intensive sense (= excessive) ; as in Hen. VIII. i. 1. 
54 : " fierce vanities " (not Shakespeare's). 

33. Or to live. Changed by Dyce and Hudson to " or so live;" 
but the original text is in keeping with the grammar of the time. 

35. All that. The early eds. have " all what ; " but White is 
probably correct in regarding it as a misprint for all that. 

38. Blood. Disposition, temper ; as very often. Cf. Much Ado, 
i. 3. 30, Ham. iii. 2. 74, etc. Johnson conjectures " mood." 

Scene III. — No one can mistake Shakespeare's hand in the 
early part of this scene, or up to line 291, and also in lines 360- 
449. In the remainder of it we appear to have the work of the 
expander of the play, though some passages may be a mixture of 
the two styles. 

2. Rotten. "Unwholesome" (Schmidt), or causing rot; as in 
R. of L. 778 : — 

11 With rotten damps ravish the morning air ; 
Let their exhal'd unwholesome breath make sick 
The life of purity," etc. 

5. Dividant. Divided, separate ; the only instance of the 
word in S. We find dividable in the same sense in T, and C. 
i. 3. 105 : " dividable shores." 

6. Not nature. Pope reads " not even nature," and Capell " not 
his nature." Steevens conjectures "not those natures." Johnson 
explains the passage thus : " Brother, when his fortune is enlarged, 
will scorn brother; for this is the general depravity of human 
nature, which, besieged as it is by misery, admonished as it is of 
want and imperfection, when elevated by fortune will despise beings 
of nature like its own." Mason puts it better thus : " Not even 
beings reduced to the utmost extremity of wretchedness can bear 



Scene III] Notes 1 97 

good fortune without contemning their fellow-creatures." He 
wanted to change nature to " natures ; " but of course the mean- 
ing is the same whether we say " beings " or human nature " re- 
duced to the utmost extremity of wretchedness." Perhaps to whom 
all sores lay siege is rather = " liable to the assaults of every mis- 
fortune," as Clarke gives it. 

9. Deny V. This has been changed to denude, degrade, deprive, 
devest, decline, demit, deject, etc.; but S. sometimes uses it with 
the antecedent implied but not expressed in what precedes. 
Here it refers to the elevation implied in raise : give elevation to 
this beggar, and deny it to (or take it away from) that lord. Cf. 
Z. Z. Z. i. 1. 23: "Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it 
too ;" that is, keep the promise implied in the preceding clause. 
Other pronouns are sometimes used in a similar way. Malone 
quotes Oth. iii. 4. 64 : — 

" And bid me, when my fate would have me wive, 
To give it her ; " 

where her of course refers to the wife implied in wive. Dyce, 
White, and the Cambridge editors retain deny V. 

12. Rother'' s. Ox's. The folio has "Brothers," for which 
"beggar's," "wether's," etc., had been conjectured before Singer 
suggested rother's, an old term applied to horned beasts. Golding, 
in his Ovid, has " Herds of rother beasts ; " and Holloway, in his 
Diet, of Provincialisms, mentions a market in Stratford-on-Avon 
called " the Rother market ; " and it is still known by that name. 
The word must therefore have been familiar to S. from his boy- 
hood, though this is the only instance in which he has used it 
in his works. 

13. Lean. The 1st folio misprints "leaue : " corrected in the 2d. 

16. Grise. Literally, step or degree ; not elsewhere used per- 
sonally. Cf. Oth. i. 3. 200 : " as a grise or step," etc. 

1 7. Smoothed. Flattered ; as in Rich. III. i. 3. 48 : " Smile in 
men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog," etc. 



198 Notes [Act iv 

18. Oblique. Perverse, awry; opposed to level — straight, 
right. 

20. Direct. Accented on the first syllable (as in Oth. i. 2. 86) 
because followed by a noun so accented. See Schmidt, Lexicon, 
pp. 1413-1415, for many similar instances. 

22. Semblable. Like. Cf. Ham. v. 2. 124: "his semblable is 
his mirror,*' etc. 

23. Fang. Seize with its fangs ; the only instance of the verb 
in S. 

25. Operant. Operative, active ; used again in Ham. iii. 2. 184 : 
" My operant powers their functions leave to do." 

27. No idle votarist. " No insincere or inconstant supplicant. 
Gold wiVL not serve me instead of roots" (Johnson). For idle, cf. 
Ham. ii. 2. 138, etc. 

Clear. Pure, immaculate ; or perhaps = glorious (Latin clarus), 
as some make it. Cf. Lear, iv. 6. 73 : " the clearest gods," etc. 

32. Pluck stout metis pillows, etc. " That is, men who have 
strength yet remaining to struggle with their distemper. This 
alludes to an old custom of drawing away the pillow from under 
the heads of men in their last agonies, to make their departure the 
easier. But the Oxford editor [Hanmer], supposing stout to 
signify healthy, alters it to sick, and this he calls emending" (War- 
burton). Hudson adopts " sick." White, Clarke, the Cambridge 
editors, and most others retain stout. 

37. This is it. Some read " this it is. " 

^8. JVappen'd. Probably = worn-out. The word has not been 
found elsewhere, though Steevens cites an instance of wappening 
from The Roaring Girl, 161 1. Unzvappered occurs in The Two 
A T oble Kinsmen, and it is a matter of dispute whether we should 
read tmwappened there or wapper'd here as some do. Hanmer 
has "waped" (the conjecture of Warburton); Johnson suggests 
" wained," Steevens ''weeping." and Seymour "vapid." Fleay 
reads " wop-eyed," and quotes an old Latiyi Diet. (Littleton's?), 
1670 : " Lippus, that hath drooping waterish eyes; wop-eyed, 



Scene III] Notes 199 

whose eyes run with water." Wed is the participle (= wedded') ; 
as in C. of E.\.\. 37, T. of S. i. 2. 263, etc. 

39. Spital-kouse. Like spital {Hen. V. ii. I. 78, v. I. 86), used 
for hospital only in contempt. Some would here print " spittle- 
house," and cite a note of Gifford's in his ed. of Massinger (181 3), 
vol. iv. p. 53 : "Our old writers carefully distinguish between the 
two words : with them a hospital or spital signified a charitable 
institution for the advantage of the poor, infirm, and aged persons, 
an almshouse, in short ; while spittles were mere lazar-houses, re- 
ceptacles for wretches in the leprosy, and other loathsome diseases, 
the consequences of debauchery and vice." Cf. Beaumont and 
Fletcher, Nice Valour, iv. 1 : — 

" The very vomit, Sirs, of hospitals, 
Bridewells, and spittle-houses." 

Spittle, however, is probably only a different spelling of spital. 
She here is = her; as in Oth. iv. 2. 3, A. and C. iii. 13. 98, T. 
and C. ii. 3. 252, etc. 

40. Cast the gorge. Be nauseated. Cf. Ham. v. 1. 207: "my 
gorge rises at it ; " Oth. ii. 1.236 : "begin to heave the gorge," 
etc. 

This embalms and spices, etc. "That is, gold restores her to all 
the freshness and sweetness of youth " (Toilet). Cf. Sonn. 3. 10 : — 

" Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee 
Calls back the lovely April of her prime." 

44. Do thy right nature. " Lie in the earth where nature laid 
thee" (Johnson). Qui ck — living ; that is, having all the power 
of gold. 

53. Misanthropos. Probably suggested, as Malone remarks, by 
marginal note in North's Plutarch : " Antonius followeth the life 
and example of Timon Misanthropos, the Athenian." 

55. Something. Somewhat ; as often. 

56. Strange. That is, a stranger. Mr. P. A. Daniel remarks : 
" Alcibiades's discourse with Timon is somewhat singular. At first 



200 Notes [Act IV 

he does not recognicr :d. Then, without being informed 

who he is, he declares : — 

' I know thee well ; 
Bur in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and strange.' 

A little later he asks : ' Bow came the noble Timon to this 
change?' A few lines further :r. he says: 'I have heard in 
some sort /-series: ' and again: — 

' I have heard and griev'd, 
Hem cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth, 
Forgetting thy great deeds,' etc" 

If 5. had hnished the play, these inconsistencies would perhaps 

have been removed. 

£& / not desire* A common transposition of not 

59. Gules, The heraldic term for red ; found again in Ham. 

li. 2. 479: "Now is he total gules." 
65. Cherubin. Cf. Temp. i. 2. 152: — 

" O. a cherubin 

Thru was :'.::■.: :.: 

M. of V. v. I. 62: "Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins," 
etc ecurs only in H \ 50. 

64. Then . etc That is, I shall not take the in- 

fect i : n from thy lips. 

73. d 'Alt not promise, etc. "That is, however thou 

act, since thou art a man. hated man, I wish thee 
(Johnson). 

So. Minion, Favourite Fi . Cd Maeb. i. 2. 1:. 

Temp. iv. 1. 9S, etc. T . originally = darling, came to 

mean " an unworthy object on whom an excessive fondness is 
bestowed." In Sylvester's Du Bartas (1605) we find " God's dis- 
ciple and his dearest minion." So in Stirling's Domes-day : " Im- 
mortall minions in their Maker's sight." 



Scene III] Notes 201 

81. Voiced. For the verb, cf. Cor. ii. 3. 242: "To voice him 
consul." 

83, 84. White reads thus : — 

" Be a whore still ! They love thee not that use thee : 
Leaving with thee their lust. Give them diseases ; " 

but the old reading seems to me more forcible and bitter : Give 
them diseases, the fit return for their lust left with thee. 

85. Salt. Lustful, wanton. Cf. Oth. ii. 1. 244, iii. 3. 404, etc. 

86. For tubs and baths. See on ii. 2. 72 above. Tub-fast (the 
folios have " Fubfast ; " corrected by Theobald at the suggestion 
of Warburton) in the next line refers to the abstinence which was 
required during the treatment. 

95. Trod, Hanmer reads " had trod ; " but the " sequence of 
tenses " was not always observed in the grammar of the time. 

101. On a heap. Cf. T. A. ii. 3. 223: "All on a heap ; " Hen. 
V, v. 2. 39 : " And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps," etc. 

106. Conquer my. Hanmer reads " make conquest of my," and 
Capell " Conquer thy own." Hudson adopts Walker's conjecture 
of "scourge my." 

108. Be as a planetary plague, etc. "This is wonderfully sub- 
lime and picturesque" (Warburton). Malone compares Rich. II. 
i. 3. 284: "Devouring pestilence hangs in our air." See also 
Ham. i. I. 162. 

116. Window-bars. The folios have "window barne " or 
" window barn ; " corrected by Steevens (the conjecture of 
Johnson). The reference is to the cross-bar lacing of the bod- 
ice, which resembles lattice-work. In the time of S. this was 
sometimes worn with no stomacher under it. 

121. Doubtfully. Alluding to the ambiguous wording of the 
oracular responses. Here there may be a reference to the story 
of CEdipus. 

122. Sans. Without. The word had become quite Anglicized, 
being used (in the form sanse or sance) in French and Italian die- 



202 Notes [Act iv 

tionaries to define sans and senza. Remorse = pity ; the most 
common meaning in S. Objects; that is, "objects of charity and 
compassion" (Johnson) ; or of " dislike " (Herford). 

124. Proof. A technical term for the resisting power of armour. 
Cf. Rich. II. i. 3. 73: "Add proof unto mine armour with thy 
prayers," etc. 

133. Enough to make, etc. "That is, enough to make a whore 
leave whoring, and a bawd leave making whores" (Johnson). 
This is pretty certainly the meaning, but some of the editors have 
thought it necessary to "emend " the passage. 

135. Oathable. To be trusted on oath ; used by S. only here, 
like mountant (= raised) in the next line. 

1 36. Although I know you, you HI swear, etc. Steevens compares 
A. and C. i. 3. 28: "Though you in swearing shake the throned 
gods ; " and W. T. i. 2. 48 : " Though you would seek to unsphere 
the stars with oaths." 

139. / '// trust to your conditions. " I will trust to your inclina- 
tions" (Johnson). Cf. Cor. v. 4. 10 : " Is 't possible that so short 
a time can alter the condition of a man ? " that is, his disposition. 
Mason makes conditions = vocations, which may be right. 

144. Thatch your poor thin roofs, etc. That is, put on false 
hair when you have lost your own. S. had a special antipathy to 
this practice. Cf. M. ofV. iii. 2. 92, L. L. L. iv. 3. 258, and Sonn. 
68. 

153. Spurring. Changed by Hanmer to "sparring." Steevens 
remarks : " spurring is certainly right ; the disease that enfeebled 
their shins would have this effect." 

155. Quillets. Subtle distinctions. Cf. I Hen. VI. ii. 4. 17: 
" these nice sharp quillets of the law," etc. 

Hoar the fla??ien. Make the priest hoary with leprosy, or with 
rottenness. Cf. 35 above. The verb occurs again in R. and J. ii. 
4. 146. 

159. That, his particular, etc. "That is, to provide for his 
private advantage, for which he leaves the right scent of public 



Scene III] Notes 203 

good" (Johnson). The metaphor in smells is from hunting with 
dogs. 

166. Grave. For the verb in this sense, cf. Rich. II. iii. 2. 140 : 
" grav'd in the hollow ground." 

178. Unmeasurable. Used again by S. in M. W. ii. I. 109. 
Immeasurable does not occur in his works. 

179. Mettle. Matter. S. uses metal and mettle indiscriminately. 
Cf. Lear, i. 1. 71 : "the selfsame metal," etc. 

181. Blue. Probably = livid, as Herford suggests. The adder 
is " earth-coloured." 

182. Eyeless venonfd worm. The blindworm of Macb. iv. I. 16, 
whose sting is an ingredient of the witches' cauldron. 

183. Crisp. Whether this epithet is suggested by the curvature 
of the heavens, or by "the curl'd clouds" (Temp. i. 2. 192), the 
commentators are not agreed, but it is probably the latter. In the 
two other instances in which S. uses the word, it seems quite as 
strange to our modern ears. Cf. Temp. iv. I. 130: "Leave your 
crisp channels; " and 1 Hen. IV. i. 3. 106: "Who [the Severn] 
. . . hid his crisp head." In the former passage, it is a question 
whether it means winding, or rippled, ruffled by the wind. In the 
latter, it is = curled, referring to the hair of the river-god. Kyd, 
in his Cornelia, 1595, has: "Turn not thy crispy tides, like silver 
curls." Cf. Milton, P. L. iv. 237: "the crisped brooks;" and 
Comus, 984 : " the crisped shades and bowers," where it seems to 
refer to the curling leaves or tendrils of vines. Milton uses the 
word only twice. 

184. Hyperion. For Hyperion as the sun-god, cf. Hen. V. iv. 
I. 292, T. and C. ii. 3. 207, etc. 

187. Conceptious. Used by S. only here. 

191. Marbled. Eternal, enduring. Cf. Oth. iii. 3. 460: "Now 
by yond marble heaven," etc. See also Cymb. v. 4. 87 (cf. 120): 
" Peep through thy marble mansion " (probably not Shakespeare's). 

193. Marrowy vines. The folio reads : " Dry vp thy Marrowes, 
Vines, and Plough-torne Leas." Rowe reads " marrows, veins ; " 



204 Notes [Act iv 

Hanmer "meadows, vineyards, plough-torn leas," etc. Marrowy 
vines is due to Dyce, and is adopted by White, Hudson, and others. 

196. That. So that ; as in ii. 2. 189 above. 

202. Infected. Diseased, morbid. 

204. Fortune. The folios have " future ; " corrected by Rowe. 

207. Diseased perfumes. " That is, their diseased perfumed mis- 
tresses. Cf. Oth. iv. 1. 150" (Malone). 

209. The cunning of a carper. " The insidious art of a critic " 
(Steevens). Carper (used by S. only here) is opposed to flatterer. 
Warburton makes it = do not play the Cynic ; which is perhaps 
favoured by 218 below. 

211. Hinge thy knee. Cf. Ham. iii. 2. 66: "And crook the 
pregnant hinges of the knee." 

213. Strain. Quality, trait. Cf. M. IV.ii.i.gi, etc. 

215. Like tapsters. Cf. V. and A. 849: "Like shrill-tongu'd 
tapsters answering every call." For bade, the 1st folio has " bad," 
which Staunton takes to be the object of welcome (welcome the 
bad). The 2d folio has "bid," which is adopted by many editors. 

223. Put thy shirt on warm ? That is, see that it is thoroughly 
dried and "aired " after washing ; a sense in which warm is found 
in contemporaneous writers. For mossed, the folios have " moyst " 
or " moist ; " corrected by Hanmer. Cf. A. Y. L. iv. 3. 105 : 
" Under an oak, whose boughs were moss'd with age." 

224. Outlived the eagle. The eagle was believed to be very long- 
lived. "Aquike senectus" was a proverb (Steevens). 

225. Where thou poinfst out? The folios have " when thou ; " 
corrected by White (the conjecture of Walker). 

226. Candied. Congealed. Cf. discandy (= thaw) in A. and C. 
iii. 13. 165 and iv. 12. 22. Caudle — furnish a caudle, or cordial, 
to ; the only instance of the verb in S. For the noun, see L. L. L. 
iv. 3. 174 : " Where lies thy pain ? a caudle, ho ! " 

229. Wreakful. Revengeful ; found again in T. A. v. 2. 32. 
231. Mere nature. The mere demands, or necessities, of nature. 
238. A knave too ? Hanmer reads " a knave thou ! " and War- 



Scene Hi] Notes 205 

burton conjectures " and know 't too ? " Johnson explains the 
passage thus : " When Apemantus tells him that he comes to vex 
him, Timon determines that to vex is either the office of a villain 
of a fool ; that to vex by design is villany, to vex without design is 
folly. He then properly asks Apemantus whether he takes delight 
in vexing, and when he answers yes, Timon replies, * What ! a 
knave too ? ' I before only knew thee to be a fool, but now I find 
thee likewise a knave" 

243. Incertain. Used by S. interchangeably with uncertain. 

Is crowned before. " Arrives sooner at high wish ; that is, at the 
completion of its wishes " (Johnson). Clarke paraphrases the speech 
thus : " Willing misery outlives uncertain grandeur, its desires are 
sooner and more surely fulfilled : the one is ever craving, never 
satisfied; the other is always at the height of its wishes : the best 
of states, without content, has a distracted and most wretched ex- 
istence, worse than the veiy worst of states, with content. Thou 
shouldst desire to die, being unwillingly miserable." The 1st folio 
has " Out-liues : incertaine ; " the 2d, " Out-lives : incertaine." 

249. Breath. Voice, sentence (Malone). 

252. Our first swath. Our swaddling-clothes, our infancy. 

Johnson remarks : "There is in this speech a sullen haughtiness 
and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord and the man- 
hater. The impatience with which he bears to have his luxury 
reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach is 
natural and graceful. There is in a letter, written by the Earl of 
Essex, just before his execution, to another nobleman, a passage 
somewhat resembling this, with which, I believe, every reader will 
be pleased, though it is so serious and solemn that it can scarcely 
be inserted without irreverence : 'God grant your lordship may 
quickly feel the comfort I now enjoy in my unfeigned conversion, 
but that you may never feel the torments I have suffered for my 
long delaying it. I had none but divines to call upon me, to 
whom I said, if my ambition could have entered into their narrow 
breasts, they would not have been so humble ; or if my delights 



206 Notes [Act iv 

had been once tasted by them, they would not have been so pre- 
cise. But your lordship hath one to call upon you that knoweth 
what it is you now enjoy, and what the greatest fruit and end is of 
all contentment that this world can afford. Think, therefore, dear 
earl, that I have staked and buoyed all the ways of pleasure unto 
you, and left them as sea-marks for you to keep the channel of 
religious virtue. For shut your eyes never so long, they must be 
open at the last, and then you must say with me, there is no peace 
to the ungodly? " 

253. The sweet. Rowe reads : "Through sweet." The sweet 
degrees is not the direct object of proceeded, but a preposition is 
understood, as often with verbs of motion. 

254. Drugs. According to Johnson and others an old form of 
drudges, used here for the sake of the measure. Todd cites from 
Huloet : "Drudge, or drugge, a seruant which doth all the vile 
seruice ; " and from Baret : "Drudge, a drug, or kitchen-slaue." 
Verplanck prints " drugges " (the folio spelling) to distinguish it 
from drugs in the ordinary sense. Some substitute " drudges." 
Capell conjectures " dregs." Schmidt thinks it may be a meta- 
phoric use of drugs = " all things in passive subserviency to salu- 
tary as well as pernicious purposes." 

255. Command. The folios have " command'st ; " corrected 
by Rowe. 

258. The icy precepts of respect. " The cold admonitions of 
cautious prudence, that deliberately weighs the consequences of 
every action" (Malone). 

260. Confectionary. Storehouse of confections, or sweets ; used 
by S. only here. 

262. Franie employment. For is understood. 

263. That numberless upo?i me stuck, etc. Commentators have 
noticed the " confusion of construction," which some would avoid 
in part by making stuck the participle. 

265. And left me open, bare, etc. Malone compares Sonn. 73. 
1-4. F or fell — fallen, cf. Lear, iv. 6. 54. 



Scene in] Notes 207 

271. Rag. Johnson conjectured " rogue." 

275. If thou hadst not, etc. Crosby (in a private letter) says : 
" Being born the worst of men would seem to be the best material 
to make a knave and flatterer. But Timon's meaning is deeper. 
By worst of men he means the most abject, degraded by birth; 
he means to tell the cynic that he was only rescued from those 
vices of which he (Apemantus) accused Timon by the meanness 
of his extraction and attainments, — that he was too low-bred to be 
even a good knave and flatterer. The poet's distinctive character- 
ization of the misanthrope and the cynic in this whole dialogue is 
a fine study. Timon is essentially a gentleman throughout ; Ape- 
mantus a low-bred carper, a ' crank,' with a streak of the envy and 
vanity that cranks possess." 

276. Thou hadst been a knave, etc. Johnson remarks : " Dry- 
den has quoted two verses of Virgil to show how well he could 
have written satires. Shakespeare has here given a specimen of 
the same power by a line bitter beyond all bitterness, in which 
Timon tells Apemantus that he had not virtue enough for the vices 
which he condemns. Dr. Warburton explains worst by lowest, 
which somewhat weakens the sense, and yet leaves it sufficiently 
vigorous [cf. the preceding note]. I have heard Mr. Burke com- 
mend the subtilty of discrimination with which Shakespeare distin- 
guishes the present character of Timon from that of Apemantus, 
whom to vulgar eyes he would now resemble." 

281. That. O that, would that, etc. 

283. My company. The folios have " thy " for my. 

286. If not, I would it were. That is, even if it were not well 
mended so, I wish it were mended imperfectly by thy absence ; or, 
perhaps, if not yet thus botched (since you have not yet gone), I 
wish the job zvere finished by your departure. 

292. Where liest, etc. From this point to 359 is apparently not 
Shakespeare's, though possibly it may be his in part. 

302. Curiosity. "Finical delicacy" (Warburton), fastidious- 
ness. Hanmer reads " courtesy." 



208 Notes [Act iv 

304. Medlar. The fruit of the Mespilus germanica. For the 
play upon the word, cf. A. Y. L. hi. 2. 125. 

307. Though. Explained by some as = since, or because ; but I 
doubt whether the word ever really has that sense. Johnson con- 
jectures " I thought it looked " (the folios have " I " for ay, as 
elsewhere) ; and Rann has "Ay, for it looks." Evans explains 
thus : " I do hate a medlar, even though it resembles so delightful 
a companion as you." 

311. After his means. That is, after his money was gone. 

324. Confusion. Destruction ; as often. Cf. confound in 326 
below. 

333. Livedst. Changed to " thou 'dst live " by Hanmer ; but 
see on 94 above. 

335. The unicorn. Cf. J. C. ii. I. 204: "unicorns may be 
betray'd with trees." Unicorns are said to have been taken by 
one who, running behind a tree, eluded the violent push the animal 
was making at him, so that his horn spent its force on the trunk, 
and stuck fast, detaining the beast till he was despatched by the 
hunter. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 10 : — 

" Like as a Lyon, whose imperiall powre 
A prowd rebellious Unicorn defyes, 
T' avoide the rash assault and wrathful stowre 
Of his fiers foe, him to a tree applyes, 
And when him ronning in full course he spyes, 
He slips aside ; the whiles that furious beast, 
His precious home, sought of his enimyes, 
Strikes in the stocke, ne thence can be releast, 
But to the mighty victor yields a bounteous feast." 

341. German. Akin. Steevens remarks : "This seems to be 
an allusion to Turkish policy : * Bears, like the Turk, no brother 
near the throne.' " Cf. W. T. iv. 4. 802 : " german to him," etc. 

343. Re?notion. "Removal from place to place" (Steevens). 
Cf. Lear, ii. 4. 1 15 : "this remotion of the duke and her." 

353. Yonder comes a poet and painter. The poet and painter 



Scene in] Notes 209 

do not appear on the stage until the beginning of the next scene. 
The mention of them here is probably somehow due to the blun- 
dering workmanship of the expander of the play. Pope omits the 
sentence, and puts the remainder of Apemantus's speech after 395 
below. Hudson boldly reads, " Yonder comes a parcel of sol- 
diers ; " that is, the banditti who enter not long after. 

360. Cap. "Top, principal" (Johnson). For the figure, cf. 
Ham. ii. 2. 233. Malone sees also an allusion to the fooVs cap. 

366. I 7/ beat thee. The folios have " He." Hanmer reads 
"I'd;" but this is only another "confusion of tenses." Some 
point thus: "I'll beat thee — but," etc. 

378. In me. Johnson changes me to " thee ;" but such changes 
of person are found elsewhere in S. Here, as Clarke notes, the 
change "serves to mark the deep melancholy with which Timon 
begins by apostrophizing himself, using thy and thine, and then 
the sharp stab with which he drives home to his own bosom the 
thought of death, actual death, from sickness of the false world, by 
suddenly changing to the more personal me." 

379. Dear. Used probably as an intensive (cf. v. 1. 229 be- 
low : "dear peril"), but possibly = cherished. For king-killer, 
Maginn conjectures "kin-killer." 

385. Close. Clarke makes this an adjective (defining close im- 
possibilities as " those things that seem impossible to be brought 
close together "), but it is probably an adverb modifying solder'' st. 

387. Touch. Touchstone. See on iii. 3. 6 above. Cf. Rich. 
III. iv. 2. 8 : " now do I play the touch," etc. 

389. Confounding. Ruinous, destructive. Cf. 324 above. 

394. 7" am quit. I am rid of you (Steevens). Cf. Hen. V. iv. 
1. 122, etc. 

395. Moe things, etc. The folios give this to Apemantus (as 
Fleay does), but Hanmer is unquestionably right in transferring 
it to Timon. For moe, see on i. 1. 43 above. The folios have 
" then " for them ; corrected by Rowe. 

398. Mere. Absolute, utter; as in Macb. iv. 3. 152, Oth. ii. 2. 3, 

TIMON OF ATHENS — 14 



210 Notes [Act iv 

etc. See on merely, iv. I. 32 above. Ort = remnant, refuse; as 
in T. and C. v. 2. 15S and R. of L. 985. 

Falling- fr -om. Falling-off, defection. There is no hyphen in 
the folios. Pope reads "falling off." 

403. Shall 's. Shall us ; a colloquialism for shall we. 

413. Both too. Changed by Hanmer to "Both, both." The too 
seems to be used merely for emphasis. Clarke says that the word 
is sometimes = too truly, in truth, indeed ; and he cites some ap- 
parently clear examples of this sense, to which this may well be 
added. 

415. JVa?it much of men. The folios have "meat" for ?nen. 
Farmer conjectures "much. Of meat Why," etc. Theobald reads 
"of meet" (that is, "of what you ought to be"); and Steevens 
suggests " of me." The reading in the text is Hanmer's, and is 
adopted by Singer, Verplanck, and others. Singer says : " I have 
adopted Hanmer's reading, which is surely the true one, being 
exactly in the spirit of Timon's sarcastic bitterness, and supported 
by what he subsequently says. After he tells them where food may 
be had which will sustain nature, the thieves say, ■ We cannot live 
on grass, on berries, and on water.' Timon replies, 'Xor on the 
beasts, the birds, and fishes ; you must eat men.' There is a double 
meaning implied in 'you want much of men,' which is obvious, 
and much in Shakespeare's manner." Verplanck adds: " With Mr. 
Singer, I have adopted this emendation, against the authority of 
other editions. ■ You want much of meat ' is very tame in sense, 
and strange in expression. The other reading is quite in the man- 
ner of Timon's bitter pleasantry, the risus sardonicus, playing upon 
words — ■ want much of men ' being antithetically opposed to ' men 
that much do want.' " 

416. The earth hath roots, etc. Johnson quotes Petronius: — 

" Vile olus, et duris haerentia mora rubetis, 
Pugnantis stomachi composuere famem : 
Flumine vicino stultus sitit." 

Verplanck remarks : " As close a resemblance as this may be traced 



Scene III] Notes 211 

in some admirable lines in the beginning of the first satire (book iii.) 
of Hall's Satires, which, as they were published in 1598, Shake- 
speare could not but have read, as the popular work of a distin- 
guished contemporary, who, at the probable date of the composition 
of Timon, was making his way to high honours in the Church. In 
contrasting modern luxury with ancient simplicity, Hall says: — 

1 Time was that, whiles the autumn-fall did last, 
Our hungry sires gap'd for the falling mast — 
Could no unhusked akorne leave the tree, 
But there was challenge made whose it might be ; 
And if some nice and liquorous appetite 
Desir'd more dainty dish of rare delight, 
They scal'd the stonied crab with clasped knee, 

****** 
Or search'd the hopeful thicks of hedgy rows 
For brierie berries, haws, or sourer sloes. 

****** 
Their only cellar was the neighbour brook, 
Nor did for better care — for better look.' 

"The American reader will observe in these spirited lines the 
Old- English use and origin of our Americanism of fall for autumn. 
The thoughts here are too obvious to every poetical mind to have 
been the subject of direct and intentional imitation ; yet the use of 
the same language and order of images indicates the probability 
that the language of the earlier poet had suggested that of the 
dramatist, while that of Hall again is more immediately amplified 
from Juvenal." 

418. Mast. Acorns; used by S. only here. 

424. Thanks I must you con. For con thanks (= give or 
acknowledge thanks), cf. A. W. iv. 3. 174: "I con him no thanks 
for 't." 

427. Limited. Apparently = under social restraint, as distin- 
guished from the reckless and irregular courses of the thieves. It 
is commonly explained as = "appointed, or allowed" (Malone), or 
"legal" (Warburton). 



1 1 2 Notes [Act IV 

429. Froth. Pope prefers to make " broth " of it. 

433. Villa ny. The folios have " villaine " or " villain ; " cor- 
rected by Rowe. Theobald changed protest to " profess ; " but cf. 
A. IV. iv. 2. 28 : "whom I protest to love," etc. 

436. Moon. Changed by Theobald to " mounds," and by Capell 
to " earth ; " but in Ham. i. I. 118, the moon is called " the moist 
star," etc. Cf. also R. and J. i. 4. 62, M. N. D. ii. 1. 162, hi. 1. 
203, JV. T. i. 2. I, and Rich. III. ii. 2. 69. Malone remarks: " S. 
knew that the moon was the cause of the tides, and in that respect 
the liquid surge, that is, the waves of the sea, may be said to resolve 
the moon into salt tears; the moon, as the poet chooses to state the 
matter, losing some part of her humidity, and the accretion to the 
sea in consequence of her tears being the cause of the liquid surge. 
Add to this the popular notion, yet prevailing, of the moon's influ- 
ence on the weather, w T hich, together with what has been already 
stated, probably induced our author here and in other places to 
allude to the watery quality of that planet." 

440. Co??iposture. Compost. Changed by Pope to " composure." 

442. The laws, your curb and whip, etc. This seems to be a 
cynical reference to the arbitrary exercise of legal authority in 
taxation and similar exactions : the laws, though they restrain and 
punish petty thieves like you, nevertheless, by the might that makes 
right, plunder without restraint. I have met with no comment 
on the passage*, and can suggest no other explanation of it ; but I 
have little doubt that this is the meaning. 

450. Has. Steevens reads " He has." Cf. hi. 3. 23 above. 

453. Mystery. See on iv. I. 18 above. 

458. True. Honest ; often opposed to thievish. 

460. Alter ation of honour. That is, change to dishonour or dis- 
grace. 

466. How rarely, etc. That is, how admirably does the injunc- 
tion to love one's enemies accord with the fashion of the times ! 

468. Grant I may ever love, etc. " Let me rather woo or caress 
those who would mischief, that profess to mean me mischief, than 



Scene III] Notes 213 

those that really do me mischief under false professions of kind- 
ness. The Spaniards, I think, have a proverb, ' Defend me from my 
friends, and from my enemies I will defend myself.' This proverb 
is a sufficient comment on this passage" (Johnson). 
470. Has. Cf. 450 above. 

485. Give. Give way to tears. 

486. Thorough. Used interchangeably with through, Cf. v. I. 
196 below. 

490. Entertain. Employ. See Much Ado, i. 3. 60 : " enter- 
tained for a perfumer," etc. 

492. Comfortable. Used actively ; as in Lear, i. 4. 328 : " Who, 
I am sure, is kind and comfortable," etc. 

493. My dangerous nature wild. Hanmer changes wild to 
" mild " (the conjecture of Thirlby). Verplanck says of the original 
text : " It is like Lear's ' This way madness lies.' Dangerous is used 
for unsafe, subject to danger ; as we still say ' a dangerous voyage.' 
Timon, in an excited and half-frantic state of mind, indignant at all 
mankind, is startled by unexpected kindness, which he says almost 
makes him mad. It strikes me as a touch of the same discriminat- 
ing and experienced observation of the * variable weather of the 
mind,' — the reason goaded by misery, and verging to insanity, — 
that furnished material for all the great poet's portraitures of the 
disturbed or shattered intellect. Warburton proposed, and several 
of the best critics have approved of, the emendation of mild for 
wild, because such unexpected fidelity was likely to soothe and 
mollify the misanthrope's temper. It is not in unison with the 
spirit of the passage." 

496. Exceptless. Absolute, making no exception ; not used 
by S. 

513. Suspect. For the noun, cf. C. of E. iii. I. 87, Rich. III. i. 3. 
89, etc. 

527. From men. "Away from human habitations " (Johnson). 



214 Notes [Act v 



ACT V 

Scene I. — The opening of this scene (1-55) is probably not 
Shakespeare's, though it has touches here and there that remind 
us of him. 

5. Phrynia and Timandra. The 1st folio has " Phrinica and 
Ti?nandylo." 

7. Poor straggling soldiers. Apparently the thieves, who called 
themselves soldiers in iv. 3. 412 above. 

9. Try. Test, trial ; not used as a noun by S. 

II. A palm, etc. Steevens compares Psalms, xcii. 1 1. 

26. The deed of saying. Doing what one says he will do. Cf. 
Ham. i. 3. 26 : " May give his saying deed." 

34. Personating. " Representing ; for the subject of this pro- 
jected satire was Timon's case, not his person" (Warburton). 

35. Discovery. Uncovering, exposure ; as often. 

45. Black-cornered. "Hiding things in dark corners" 
(Schmidt); perhaps simply "obscure as a dark corner" 
(Steevens), or making corners specially dark. Hanmer reads 
" black-corneted," Collier "black-covered," and Hudson "black- 
curtain'd" (the conjecture of Singer). " Black-coroned," " black- 
crowned," " black-coned " (because the earth's shadow is a cone !), 
" black-garner' d," " black-'coutred," etc., have also been proposed. 

64. Influence. An astrological term and in keeping with star- 
like ; the usual sense (literal or figurative) in S. and his contempo- 
raries. Cf. Temp. i. 2. 182, W. T. i. 2. 426, etc. 

81. Counterfeit. With an indirect allusion to its sense of por- 
trait, for which cf. M. of V. iii. 2. 1 15 : "Fair Portia's counter- 
feit," etc. 

86. Natural. Here, also, there is a double sense ; either im- 
plying the putting of his own false nature into his art (Clarke), 
or that he is a " natural," or fool. 

96. Cog. Cheat, deceive. Cf. Much Ado, v. I. 95 : "lie and 
cog," etc. 



Scene I] Notes 215 

97. Patchery. " Botchery intended to hide faults ; gross and 
bungling hypocrisy" (Schmidt). It is commonly explained as 
" roguery, cozenage ; " but I am inclined to think that Schmidt 
is right. Cf. T. and C. ii. 3. 77 : " Here is such patchery, such 
juggling, and such knavery ! " S. uses the word only twice. 

99. Made-up. "Complete, finished" (Mason). Johnson took 
it to be = hypocritical. 

103. Draught. Privy ; as in T. and C. v. I. 82. Cf. 2 Kings, x. 
27. 

107. But two in company. That is, but still two together ; for, 
though single and alone, yet an arch-villain keeps him company. 
It is strange that Hanmer (followed by Hudson) should think it 
necessary to change but to " not." Nothing can be clearer than 
that lines 108, 109 are an explanatory repetition of 107. 

1 14. You have done work. The folios have " You have worke " 
(or "work"); and Hanmer reads "You have work'd." The cor- 
rection in the text is Malone's. 

121. Part. Business, task ; as often. Dyce adopts Walker's 
conjecture of "pact." 

132. Comfort 1 st. The 1st folio has " comforts ; " a contraction 
of second persons in -test sometimes found elsewhere. 

134. Cauterizing. The 1st folio has " Cantherizing," and the 
later folios have " catherizing ; " corrected by Pope. Capell reads 
" cancerizing." It is possible that the original text is what S. 
wrote. The Cambridge editors say : "The word canlerisynge for 
cauterizing is found very frequently in an old surgical work, 
printed in 1541, of which the title is The questyonary of Cyrur- 
gyens. . . . The instrument with which the operation is performed 
is in the same book called a cantere. The form of the word may 
have been suggested by the false analogy of canterides, that is, 
cantharides, which occurs in the same chapter." 

149. Fail. The folios have " fall ; " corrected by Capell. For 
the .noun, cf. W. T. ii. 3. 170, v. 1. 107, Hen. VIII. i. 2. 145, ii. 
4. 198, etc. Hanmer reads "fault." 



2l6 



Notes 



I A:: V 



/.- .-:• >: :s = ::s : ~- : gene nil; :"-;= 
possessive it (or//) is found fonitaa 
;5 ::::_; :'.:;..: in seven :::he>t i: : ; : 
is :: he :::t:. =i_s:. in: iz- :ze :zlj 
lz : zi zresez: Eizie _1>: :;:.:.:. ::::"••. 
owne;" and in the Ge n e va vecsioi 
accorde " in ^#c6^ xii. 10. So in Syfa 

::_:i : ,.e i :i- i: red «- 

E~ :-e i-i lirze :: :~e 

These zzi szzzils.: :zs:zz:es ~:zli S: 
sessive # was often retained in this 

;_: :: gezerz. zse : inz ::e; _5:;~' 
~za: 5. rr:~3.:".v ~:::e here. Jh: .":: 
have I solitary ^:znce in i. 2. 256 



lged to "its own." This old 

zzzes iz ize is: :":li:. izi :: 
the combination i/ *a»v. It 

x-:ix:e iz ~ -.;- ::: B-ZZ-eirs 

5), the ed. of 1611 has "it 

1557 we find ** it owne 

^:er's 1 :zcz : — 



. ":;:: ex zz : 1: 
:: iz ::: ::li: 2: 
lie way of 1 

ez:::zzliT ;z 



23zjw. p. 235) 

rriige ei::::s. 
ex:, zi;:: :xx 



inal text. We hie 

: :;; :::i --e ::-e : 
1 ~x::z i: is e izivi'.e 



right to change the pos- 
A£r to £ft in the scores of 

zx : :e:z zex:e: z issessi e. 



s:iz:e ls :z z ~c~.. 



- II 



Scene I] Notes 217 

of the poet's grammar and vocabulary is a praiseworthy character- 
istic of what Furnivall calls the " Victorian school " of Shake- 
spearian criticism ; in marked contrast to the practice of the critics 
of the eighteenth century, who were given to "correcting" Shake- 
speare's English by the standards of their own time. 

150. Render. Confession (Steevens). Pope reads "tender," 
and Hanmer "sorrow's tender." Cf. Cymb. iv. 4. 1 1 : "may drive 
us to a render." 

163. Allowed, Trusted, invested. 

166. Like a boar, etc. Steevens compares Psalms, lxxx. 13. 

181. Whittle. Clasp-knife, pocket-knife ; used by S. only here. 

182. Before. It has been suggested that there is a play on this 
word — the knife before the throat. 

184. Prosperous. Malone is certainly right in taking this to be 
used in an active sense (= " authors of prosperity "), with a touch 
of irony : "may the gods so keep and guard you as jailers do 
thieves ; that is, for final punishment." Cf. prosperous = propi- 
tious, favourable, in W. T.w. I. 161 : "A prosperous south wind." 

187. My long sickness, etc. " The disease of life begins to 
promise me a period" (Johnson). 

193. Wrack. The only spelling in the early eds. Cf. the 
rhymes in V. and A. 558, R. of L. 841, 965, Sonn. 126. 5, and 
Macb. v. 5. 51. 

194. Bruit. Rumour, report ; as in T. and C. v. 9. 4, etc. 

196. Thorough. Through. See on iv. 3. 486 above. 

197. Triumphers. Accented on the second syllable, like tri- 
umphing in L. L. L. iv. 3. 35, triumphed in I Hen. IV. v. 3. 15, 
triu?7iph in Id. v. 4. 14, etc. 

199. And tell them, etc. " Compare this part of Timon's speech 
with part of the celebrated soliloquy [iii. 1. 70 fol.] in Hamlet " 
(Steevens). 

200. Aches. A dissyllable. See on i. 1. 255 above. 

206. / have a tree, etc. S. took this from Paynter or North's 
Plutarch. See pp. 150, 152, above. 



21 S Notes >- v 

209. In, At stfuewue cf degree, m MefinodicaJly , from highest to 

l:-rs: ;--s-: : . 

; : : . 7 2 - : 7i e t e :": is _ ; e i is : - ~ 2.= 

:■; -:z_-: ;- ": _^: 5 _:s:::_:t ' Tuiiit Fir-e : 

7 ^iiiii seems eve- s::i-^t: :: : _: eirs.. "' T ,'::;:r i:zi- 
pares "take Ids gait* 9 in Jf. JC. D. ▼. 1. 423. 

::- _ r . :" I: ."_' _V. J. n. :. 5: :t ie Lzztz.: 

:: ::: sei 

zi! '"': 7r.f lire: ::L:s iiv t ••".---;•- = -is 

"".• if ::::: .::: :*:: :-:± ~: riis.. -T :"= i rlien. 



I- ±: :i5.^e, :: ?:•::::. 7 ::: :'::•:. 

::: 7:, . 7"f :*: "... : s 1.:/- :'. _-t 
r\:~e. I-:.:?:!, 2.1:7 ; ".-.-, ;.:.-.-.: t .: "7:--.:.*" 71i.iT 
i~. :ies :: 1: :'; _: refer: : : '::: ::.;:;:- r; :.i^ ;:':':_: lir.es 

::: 7;s Hrei.:. iesr-enie. S-te:z. : :-■=':■:■ 

S:i 1 DL — _ - r fwMiliili ; as in L 1. 73 above 

1 - ■ r. r t i : 7 7 : 7 = : : " " ' 7. . 2 n : : ; - .7 r .- 
rl 7_is:r_ : '" '7.77. 1: is 772: '727 > ; 7.7 ::' i:.e =12.- v ;; 



- : z.:.-z. :::. — t 

::* :ie 7:17. - -- : . 
:: 1 -•er-jltrlrj ::: 
2:7 ±f 7 _:.:.r ir. : 
-•:-r :.ei:eve ::. 
-•-i.tre it 2: ±e :: 
r . 7" t r z: 52 z *. 7. r * 7 " 



Scene III] Notes 2 1 9 

the name of man is left to do it ! Some of the editors, with 
amusing literalness, have objected that the beasts could not read it. 
Do these matter-of-fact folk need to be told that the men who 
might read it are regarded by the misanthrope as beasts? The 
chief objections to this explanation are that an inscription calling 
attention to the epitaph close by seems superfluous, and that we 
must suppose it to be written in a different language from the 
epitaph. We are told that it is in " the language of the country," 
or " the ordinary vernacular," while the epitaph proper is in 
some other language unknown to the Soldier. Clarke re- 
marks : " That there should be two distinct inscriptions and 
two distinct characters is in strict accordance with an ancient 
observance in sepulchral inscriptions ; and this observance is 
twice referred to in Miss Martincau's Eastern Life, Present 
and Past (1850), pp. 107, 252." But in this case we have not 
two inscriptions on the same tomb, for the Soldier says he cannot 
read what's on this tomb; and, as I have said, I can imagine 
no reason for a separate inscription so near the tomb. 

According to another explanation, accepted by the great ma- 
jority of the editors, the lines are a part of the Soldier's speech. 
Warburton's conjecture of "rear'd" for read is adopted, and the 
passage is paraphrased (as by Ritson) thus : " * What can this 
heap of earth be?' (says the Soldier); 'Timon is certainly dead : 
some beast must have erected this, for here does not live a man to 
do it. Yes, he is dead, sure enough, and this mast be his grave, 
What is this writing upon it?* " It does not seem to have oc- 
curred to those who adopt this interpretation that Timon's cave 
was in no remote and inaccessible place, but in the woods not far 
from Athens. Even if the Soldier was surprised at finding a tomb 
in such a place, he would naturally take it for granted that some 
old friend of Timon had reared it. The exclamation seems too 
strong for the momentary feeling of astonishment. 

It seems to me that read may be retained without assuming that 
the couplet is an inscription. The Soldier comes to the cave, ex- 



220 Notes [Act V 

peering to find Trmon, but gets no answer when he calls. Look- 
ing about, he sees the grave and the tombstone with its inscription, 
aat is this ? " he asks ; "Timon most be dead, having lived 
out his span/ 7 Being unable to read, and finding no one to read 
the epitaph for him, he gives vent to his vexation by exclaiming, 

- ; me beast read this I for there is no man here to do it." Here 
we may imagine him to pause and try to discover some further 
clue to the mystery. There seems to be none, and he goes on : 
■ Yes, he is certainly dead, and this is his grave. I cannot read 
what r s on the tomb, but I '11 take the impression of it in wax, and 

This seems, on the whole, the least unsatisfactory interpretation 
of the passage. The explanation of Some beast read this is John- 
son's. Malone thought it absurd " to call on a beast to read the 
inscription without assigning any reason for so extraordinary a 
requisition.*' A reason is assigned for it, and a good one enough 
for an impatient exclamation of that sort. That the Soldier should 
call upon the beast is by no means so wonderful as that the 
critic should, in cold blood, call him to account fc: 

- _ r \ Handwriting. Cf. v. i. 155 above. 

it * ag'd." It may, however, be a dissyllable, with an extra m^ 



1 IV. — Here e get back to Shakespeare again. 

7he scope of justice. The space or limit within which justice, 

r what they choose to regard as justice, is bounded ; or "justice 

as what they chose it to be, and no more* , (Evans). Cf. Ham. 

L 2. 2: r.Ws cheer in prison be my scope!" (the 

ms m This is commonly explained 1 s = 
ith folded arms : a _ 24), "in this sad 

not." It may, however, mean "with om arms reversed 



Scene IV] Notes 221 

8. Flush. In its prime, ripe. Cf. Ham. iii. 3. 81 : " With all his 
crimes broad blown, as flush as May." 

9. Marrow. Used, as elsewhere, for strength, or vigour. Cf. 
A. W. ii. 3. 298 : " manly marrow," etc. 

13. Horrid. Horrified, affrighted. 

14. Griefs. Grievances ; as in 24 below and very often. Con- 
ceit = conception, idea, fancy ; as often. 

17. Ingratitudes. The folios have "ingratitude ; " corrected by 
Capell. The emendation is clearly favoured by their in the next 
line ; though Warburton makes the pronoun refer to rages, and 
Malone to griefs. Ingratitudes occurs again in T. and C. iii. 3. 

147. 

20. Means. Theobald and Hudson read " 'mends ; " but means 
carries with it the idea of substantial recompense for the wrong 
done to Timon. 

24. Griefs. The 1st and 2d folios have "greefe," the others 
" grief; " corrected by Theobald. They refers to griefs. 

26. In them. "That is, in the persons from whom you have 
received your griefs" (Malone), 

27. The motives that you first went out. That is, the authors of 
your banishment. For the personal use of motives, cf. Oth. iv. 2. 
43 and A. and C. ii. 2. 96. 

28. Shame, that they wanted, etc. Extreme shame for their folly 
in banishing you hath broke their hearts. Johnson would read 
" coming " for cunning : " shame which they had so long wanted, 
at last coming in its utmost excess." For cunning, cf. Oth. iii. 3. 
49 : " in ignorance and not in cunning," etc. 

As Clarke remarks, we have here an example of the poet's de- 
vices for producing the effect of long time : " by the mention that 
those who refused Alcibiades his demand in iii. 5 are now dead, 
the effect is produced of a sufficiently long period having elapsed 
to allow of the incidents taking place concerning Timon's sojourn 
in the woods, his life of gnawing wrath and fever of indignation, 
his decay, and death." 



222 Notes [Act V 

36. Square. Just Cl A. and C. iL 2. 190 : " if report be square 
to her." 

Revenges. The folios have " revenge ; " corrected by Steevens. 

F:r= :ri s like :: '.mis Tie zeii::; :: : : _rse is. i r~.es ire 
not inherited as lands are. C£ what Rosalind says in A. K. Z. L 3. 
63 : " Treason is not inherited, my lord-" 

__ 1.' -/;-'. The :tz'iiLg ::' :i :':!:: : ::t is: -jls 
gether," and the 2d u al together." 

46. ifez* to '£ Shape it. Mr. P. A. Daniel suggests " hew t 
out" 

47. Ez-^r:'^'z'. Za::ti. :i:::;iiti ; isei : 5, : 

42. r*,-:/7r. The re^i:::^ ::' _l:"- ::'!: : :_e eirlee: ::!::=. ^s 
sometimes elsewhere, have "thou't." 

52. Confusion. Destruction ; as in iv. 1. 21, etc, above. 

55. Uncharged ports. Unassanlted gates. Y ox ports* cf. Or. L 
7. 1. v. 6. 6, etc For descend* the 1st folio misprints " defend ; " 
; :::e;:e i in ".re ; :. 

58. Atone. Reconcile, bring into accord. C£ <£u£. II. Li. 202, 
Cfcl. iv. 1. 244 etc. 

62. Rendered. The folios have " remedied," and all but the 1st 
"by" instead of to. Rendered 'was suggested by Chedworth, and 
is s.i: _ :ei ;; ~:s: :: :*-e eii::rs. A::e: = :ee _ z12.it :: 

zl :.:.:?. :ie :'.i :e:::. : _: vr± =— zli ; _: :es= 

67. Insculpture. Used by S. only here, and inscription only in 
M. of V. iL 7. 4, 14. Insculp occurs only in 3/1 of V. iL j. 57. 

r H_is:r. 2 :'. :;::s "' .,:t. 5 ..:. t;:_:t 

him) of "poorer." 

-:. Ez-^t '.in. e::. Here ~e 'z.ir-t ':::': ::" :1 e eritariis ~"-::b 
N":r/- ::' - 1:: 1: - rr~es The" ^-- :z;:zss:er.: - ■--_-.- :::: 
::' _ er. mi - - - - ~ :i _ : :: _se 1 :ne ::' 

He seems to have written both in the manuscript when hesitating 
:e:~ een :'l±~. mi a::er— iris :: hive r.erle::ei :: :::^:e :r.e : _:. 
~i:ke ; :;::«:- :"-. = : he my ':::.■■- iz:eziei :: - : _'. i 2 :e ::::::: 
upon the two ; and this he thinks is supported by the change of 



Scene IV] Notes 223 

"wretches" in the original to caitiffs. The latter word seems to 
have been suggested by the epitaph given by Paynter (see p. 151 
above). 

76. Our brain's flow. Our tears, or our tearful appeal. Han- 
me'r reads "brine's." Steevens quotes Drayton, The Miracles of 
Moses : — 

" But he from rocks that fountains can command 
Cannot yet stay the fountains of the brain." 

79. On faults forgiven. Theobald reads " On thy low grave. — 
On : faults forgiven; " the "On" being addressed to the senate, 
and = " set forward." Hanmer has " On thy low grave our faults 
— forgiven, since dead," etc. Tyrwhitt conjectures "One fault's 
forgiven; " that is, "the ingratitude of the Athenians to Timon." 
Hudson changes on to " o'er," which is very plausible. 

83. Stint. Check, stop. Cf. T. and C. iv. 5. 93 : " Half stints 
their strife," etc. 

84. Leech. Physician ; the only instance of the word in S. Cf. 
Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 43 : " For Tryphon of sea gods the soveraine 
leach is hight." 



APPENDIX 

The Stage History of the Play 

As I have said above (p. 12), it is probable that the play was put 
upon the stage before the printing of the folio, but we find no record 
of its performance until the latter part of the seventeenth century, 
and then only in a modified form. 

In 1678, Thomas Shadwell published "The History of Timon of 
Athens, the Man Hater, Made into a play," and it was acted at the 
Dorset Street Theatre in London, probably in the same year. It 
was an adaptation of the original drama, and was dedicated to 
George, Duke of Buckingham, the author of The Rehearsal. In 
the dedication Shadwell says : " I am now to present your Grace 
with this History of Timon, which you were pleased to tell me you 
liked ; and it is the more worthy of you, since it has the inimitable 
hand of Shakespear in it, which never made more masterly strokes 
than in this." He adds, with his usual self-conceit, "Yet I can 
truly say, I have made it into a play ; " and in the prologue, 
" addressed to the Wits who sate in judgment on new plays," he 
says : — 

" In th' art of judging you so wise are grown, 
As, in their choice, some ladies of the town ; 
Your neat-shap'd Barbary Wits you will despise, 
And none but lusty sinewy writers prize : 
Old English Shakespear-stomachs, you have still, 
And judge, as our fore-fathers wrote, with skill ; " 

and in the epilogue : — 

" If there were hope that ancient solid wit 
Might please within our new fantastick pit, 

224 



Appendix 225 

The play might then support the criticks* shock, 
This scion grafted upon Shakespear's stock." 

In this production great liberties were taken with the original 
work, the names of the characters and the characters themselves 
being altered. In that day a play with no love story in it could have 
met with little favour. Shadwell therefore represented Timon as 
faithless to his mistress, Evandra, who loves him devotedly to the 
last ; while he is enamoured of Melissa, " a mercenary creature 
who oscillates between him and Alcibiades accordingly as their for- 
tunes rise or fall." 

John Downes, in his Roscius Anglicanus (1708), says of the 
revival in 1707: "Timon of Athens alter'd by Mr. Shadwell M : 
" 't was very well acted, and the music in 't well perform'd ; it won- 
derfully pleas'd the Court and City ; being an excellent moral," but 
we find a different estimate of it in the epilogue to The Jew of 
Venice by George Granville, Lord Lansdowne, twenty-three years 
later : — 

" How was the scene forlorn, and how despis'd 
When Timon, without music, moraliz'd ! 
Shakespeare's sublime in vain entic'd the throng, 
Without the charm of Purcell's syren song " — 

though here the lack of the music, rather than the poverty of the 
drama, seems to be regarded as the cause of the failure. 

Shadwell's version — or perversion — held the stage for nearly a 
century. After its revival in 1 707 at the Haymarket, it was pro- 
duced at Drury Lane in 1720 and 1740, and at Covent Garden in 
1733 and 1745. It was also performed in Dublin about 171 5. 

An adaptation of the play, from Shadwell and Shakespeare, was 
published by James Dance (better known by his acting name, 
James Love) in 1768, and was produced by the author at the thea- 
tre erected by him and his brother at Richmond. 

Another version, by Richard Cumberland, was brought out in 
1 771, at Drury Lane, under Garrick's management. In his adver- 

TIMON OF ATHENS — 1 5 



226 Appendix 

tisement to the printed play, Cumberland expresses his wish that he 
could have adapted it to the stage with less violence to the author, 
but hopes that his own errors may be overlooked or forgiven on 
account of the " many passages of the first merit " which he has 
retained. He adds that, " as the part of Evanthe, and with very 
few exceptions the whole of Alcibiades, are new, the author of the 
alteration has much to answer for." In his Memoir he tells us that 
" public approbation seemed to sanction the attempt at the first 
production of the play," but he admits that it was subsequently less 
fortunate. Genest, who, in his Account of the English Stage (1832), 
gives a full description of the changes made by Cumberland, refers 
to some of them as judicious. He says that in making few altera- 
tions in the scenes from Shakespeare Cumberland is much superior 
to Shadwell, but that the additions made by both authors coalesce 
badly with the original. Both, however, he thinks have improved 
the part of Alcibiades in the drama. 

In 1786, another version was produced at Covent Garden, altered 
from Shakespeare and Shadwell, and attributed to Thomas Hull, 
an actor who played at Covent Garden for forty-eight years, 
wrote a tragedy {Henry I/.) which had considerable success, and 
adaptations from the French, operatic librettos, novels, poems, etc. 
His version of Timon was coldly received and was never printed. 

We have no further record of Timon until October, 1 81 6, when 
Shakespeare's version was for the first time reproduced, though with 
some changes made by the Honourable George Lamb, who is best 
known by his translation of Catullus (1821). In the advertisement 
to the play, he says : " The present attempt has been to restore 
Shakespeare to the stage, with no other omissions than such as the 
refinement of manners has rendered necessary — the short interpo- 
lation in the last scene has been chiefly compiled from Cumber- 
land's alteration." Genest praises it as "not only infinitely better 
than any of the former alterations, but serving as a model of the 
manner in which Shakespeare's plays should be adapted to the 
modern stage." It was acted only seven times, though Edmund 



Appendix 227 

Kean took the part of Timon. " Barry Cornwall " (B. W. Procter) 
pronounces the play "unadapted for representation." He adds: 
" In fact, although one of the finest, it is at the same time one of 
the least dramatic works of Shakespeare." 

Thirty-five years elapsed before Timon was again revived. In 
September, 1851, it was brought out by Phelps at Sadler's Wells, 
and between that time and Christmas was performed some forty 
times. Its success appears to have been largely due to the elabo- 
rate style in which it was put upon the stage. The scenery was 
particularly fine. " A moving picture, representing the march of 
Alcibiades to Athens was introduced, and the last scene presented 
the sea with the tomb of Timon as a conspicuous object." John 
Oxenford, one of the best critics of the day, gave a very full anal- 
ysis of the performance in the Times. He declares that Timon 
was one of Phelps's most effective characters. He dwells on the 
presentation of " the inherent dignity of the misanthrope." The 
delivery of the curse at the end of act iii. is said to be " grandly 
impressive." He adds : " The feeling of wrong has kindled itself 
into a prophetic inspiration, and the parasites shrink before their 
awful host as before a supernatural presence." 

In October, 1856, Timon was again successfully revived, at the 
Princess's Theatre, by Charles Kean ; and with this representation 
the stage history of the play comes to an end. For much fuller in- 
formation on the subject, the reader may be referred to Mr. Joseph 
Knight's introduction to the play in the " Henry Irving " edition 
of Shakespeare, to which I have been chiefly indebted in this con- 
cise summary. 

The Character of Timon 

Charles Knight, after referring to the resemblance between Lu- 
cian and Shakespeare (p. 157 above) remarks : — 

" The vices of Shakspere's Timon are not the vices of a sen- 
sualist. It is true that his offices have been oppressed with riotous 



228 Appendix 

feeders, that his vaults have wept with drunken spilth of wine, that 
every room * hath blaz'd with lights, and bray'd with minstrelsy ; ' 
but he has nothing selfish in the enjoyment of his prodigality and 
his magnificence. He himself truly expresses the weakness, as well 
as the beauty, of his own character : * Why, I have often wished 
myself poorer, that I might come nearer to you. We are born to 
do benefits, and what better or properer can we call our own than 
the riches of our friends ? O, what a precious comfort 't is to have 
so many, like brothers, commanding one another's fortunes ! ' 
Charles Lamb, in his contrast between Ti?non of Athens and Ho- 
garth's ' Rake's Progress,' has scarcely done justice to Timon : * The 
wild course of riot and extravagance, ending in the one with driving 
the Prodigal from the society of men into the solitude of the des- 
erts ; and, in the other, with conducting Hogarth's Rake through 
his several stages of dissipation into the still more complete desola- 
tions of the madhouse, in the play and the picture are described 
with almost equal force and nature.' Hogarth's Rake is all sensu- 
ality and selfishness ; Timon is essentially high-minded and gener- 
ous ; he truly says, in the first chill of his fortunes : 

* No villanous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart; 
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.' 

In his splendid speech to Apemantus in the fourth act, he distinctly 
proclaims that, in the weakness with which he had lavished his for- 
tunes upon the unworthy, he had not pampered his own passions [iv. 
3.252: "Hadst thou, like us, from our first swath," etc.]. The all- 
absorbing defect of Timon — the root of those generous vices which 
wear the garb of virtue — is the entire want of discrimination, by 
which he is also characterized in Lucian's dialogue. Shakspere has 
seized upon this point, and held firmly to it. He releases Ventidius 
from prison, he bestows an estate upon his servant, he lavishes 
jewels upon all the dependants who crowd his board. . . . That 
universal philanthropy, of which the most selfish men sometimes 
talk, is in Timon an active principle ; but let it be observed that he 



Appendix 229 

has no preferences. It appears to us a most remarkable example of 
the profound sagacity of Shakspere to exhibit Timon without any 
especial affections. It is thus that his philanthropy passes without 
any violence into the extreme of universal hatred to mankind. Had 
he loved a single human being with that intensity which constitutes 
affection in the relation of the sexes, and friendship in the relation 
of man to man, he would have been exempt from that unjudging 
lavishness which was necessary to satisfy his morbid craving for 
human sympathy. Shakspere, we think, has kept this most steadily 
in view. . . . 

" With this key to Timon's character, it appears to us that we may 
properly understand the ' general and exceptless rashness' of his 
misanthropy. The only relations in which he stood to mankind are 
utterly destroyed. In lavishing his wealth as if it were a common 
property, he had believed that the same common property would 
flow back to him in his hour of adversity. * O, you gods, think I, 
what need we have any friends, if we should never have need of 
them ? they were the most needless creatures living, should we 
ne'er have use for them, and would most resemble sweet instru- 
ments hung up in cases, that keep their sounds to themselves.' His 
false confidence is at once, and irreparably, destroyed. If Timon 
had possessed one friend with whom he could have interchanged 
confidence upon equal terms, he would have been saved from his 
fall, and certainly from his misanthropy. . . . But his nature has sus- 
tained a complete revulsion, because his sympathies were forced, 
exaggerated, artificial. It is then that all social life becomes to 
him an object of abomination [iv. I. 15: "Piety and fear," etc.]. 
Nothing can be more tremendous than this imprecation, — nothing, 
under the circumstances, more true and natural." 



Shakespeare's Part of the Play 

The following scenes and parts of scenes are probably Shake- 
speare's : — 



230 Appendix 

Act I. — Scene 1, lines 1-185, 247-262, 284-294. 

Act II. — Scene 1 ; scene 2, lines 1-44, 129-238. 

Act III. — Scene 6, lines 87-107. 

Act IV. — Scene 1; scene 2, lines 1-29; scene 3, lines 1-291, 
36o-395> 410-449. 

Act V. — Scene I, lines 56-229 ; scene 2 ; scene 4. 

The critics agree substantially on the above list, but differ in 
regard to some minor portions of it. For further discussion of the 
subject, see New Skaks. Soc. Transactions for 1874, Fleay's Shake- 
speare Manual (1876) and Chronicle Hist, of Shakes. (1886), Intro- 
duction to the Play in "Henry Irving" ed. of Shakes. (1890), etc. 



The Time-Analysis of the Play 

This is summed up by Mr. P. A. Daniel, in his paper " On the 
Times or Durations of the Actions of Shakspere's Plays " ( Trans, 
of New Shaks. Soc. 1877-79, p. 196), as follows : — 

" The time of the play may be taken as six days represented on 
the stage, with one considerable interval. 
Day 1. Act I. sc. i. and ii. 
" 2. Act II. sc. i. and ii., Act III. sc. i.-iii. 
" 3. Act III. sc. iv.-vi., Act IV. sc. i. and ii. 

Interval, 
" 4. Act IV. sc. iii. 
" 5. Act V. sc. i. and ii. 
" 6. Act V. sc. iii. and iv." 



List of Characters in the Play 

The numbers in parentheses indicate the lines the characters 
have in each scene. 



Appendix 231 

Timon: i. 1(69), 2(106) ; ii. 2(73); iii. 4(21), 6(56); iv. 1(41) 
3(378); v. 1(119). Whole no. 863. 

Lucius : iii. 2(44). Whole no. 44. 

Lucullus : iii. 1(38). Whole no. 38. 

Sempronius : iii. 3(25). Whole no. 25. 

Ventidius : i. 2(9). Whole no. 9. 

Alcibiades : 1.1(2), 2(6); iii. 5(80); iv. 3(32); v. 4(40). Whole 
no. 160. 

Apemantus : i. 1(59), 2(80); ii. 2(30); iv. 3(95). Whole no. 
264. 

Flavius: i. 2(25); ii. 2(77); iii. 4(21); iv. 2(33), 3(37); v - 
1 (11). Whole no. 204. 

Flaminius : ii. 2(1); iii. 1(25), 4(4). Whole no. 30. 

Lucilius : i. 1(5). Whole no. 5. 

Servilius : iii. 2(13), 4(7). Whole no. 20. 

Caphis : ii. 1(3), 2(18). Whole no. 21. 

Philotus : iii. 4(6). Whole no. 6. 

Titus : iii. 4(16). Whole no. 16. 

Luciuis Servant : iii. 4(32). Whole no. 32. 

Hortensius : iii. 4(11). Whole no. II. 

Poet: i. 1(77); v. 1(34). Whole no. ill. 

Painter : i. 1(31); v. 1(44). Whole no. 75. 

Merchant: i. 1(11). Whole no. II. 

Jeweller : i. 1(12). Whole no. 12. 

Old Athenian : i. 1(29). Whole no. 29. 

Messenger : i. 1(9); v. 2(11). Whole no. 20. 

1st Lord : i. 1(9), 2(13); iii. 6(29). Whole no. 51. 

2d Lord : i. 1(12), 2(8); iii. 6(30). Whole no. 50. 

3d Lord : i. 2(3); iii. 6(12). Whole no. 15. 

4th Lord : iii. 6(3). Whole no. 3. 

1st Servant : i.2(8); ii. 2(1); iii. 1(3), 3(19); iv. 2(6). Whole 
no. 3J. 

2d Servant : i. 2(3); iv. 2(8). Whole no. 11. 

3d Servant : i. 2(4)5 lv - 2 (6). Whole no. 10. 



232 Appendix 

1st Senator : ii. 1(35); iii. 5(31); v. 1(27), 2(3), 4(26). Whole 
no. 122. 

2d Senator : iii. 5(11); -v. 1(26), 2(1), 4(25). Whole no. 63. 

3d Senator : iii. 5(1); v. 2(4). Whole no. 5. 

1st Varro's Servant: ii. 2(19); iii. 4(9). Whole no. 28. 

2d Varro's Servant : iii. 4(7). Whole no. 7. 

Isidore's Servant : ii. 2(16). Whole no. 16. 

Fool: ii. 2(25). Whole no. 25. 

1st Stranger : iii. 2(31). Whole no. 31. 

2d Stranger : iii. 2(7). Whole no. 7. 

3d Stranger : iii. 2(1). Whole no. I. 

1st Bandit : iv. 3(14). Whole no. 14. 

2d Bandit : iv. 3(6). Whole no. 6. 

3d Bandit : iv. 3(6). Whole no. 6. 

Soldier : v. 3(10), 4(5). Whole no. 15. 

Page: ii. 2(10). Whole no. 10. 

" Cupid" : i. 2(6). Whole no. 6. 

Phrynia : iv. 3(5). Whole no. 5. 

Timandra : iv. 3(8). Whole no. 8. 

1st Lady : i. 2(2). Whole no. 2. 

" All" : i. 2(1); iii. 6(2); iv. 3(4). Whole no. 7. 

In the above enumeration, parts of lines are counted as whole 
lines, making the total in the play greater than it is. The actual 
number of lines in each scene (Globe edition numbering) is as fol- 
lows : i. 1(294), 2(257); ^ !(35)» 2 ( 2 42); iii. 1(66), 2(94), 3(42), 
4(H9), 5(117), 6(130); iv. 1(41), 2(50), 3(542); v. 1(230,2(17), 
3(10), 4(85). Whole number in the play, 2372. 



INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES 
EXPLAINED 



abhor himself, 163 

abroad, 189 

aches (dissyllable), 167, 

217 
adoring of, 173 
advance this jewel, 174 
affect (= desire), 174 
after his means, 208 
aged (monosyllabic), 220 
all to you! 175 
allowed (= trusted), 217 
alteration of honour, 212 
angry wit to be a lord, 167 
apperil, 170 
argument (= contents), 

180 
artificial strife, 161 
as (omitted), 190 
assurance bless your 

thoughts! 181 
at fall, 182 

at length (= at last) , 1^9 
atone (= reconcile) , 222 
attend (= await), 190 

banquet (= dessert) , 174 

beached, 218 

bear (= bear off), 165 

becks, 175 

before (play upon ?), 217 

behave (= control) , 189 

beneath (adjective), 162 

best, 187 

better (= too good ?), 191 

biils (play upon), 188 

black-cornered, 214 

blood (= disposition) , 196 

blue (= livid), 203 

bound (=bank), 160 

brain's flow, 223 

breath (= voice), 204 

breathe (= speak), 189 

breathed, 159 

bruit, 217 



by (= according to), 166 
by mercy, 189 

candied (= congealed), 
204 

cap (borrower's), 176 

cap (= top), 209 

cap and knee slaves, 192 

carper, 204 

cast the gorge, 199 

caudle (verb), 204 

cauterizing, 215 

call to (= call on), 174 

ceased (passive), 176 

chafes, 160 

charge, 188 

cheerly, 182 

cherubin, 200 

chickens, 178 

clear (= pure), 198 

close, 209 

cog (= cheat), 214 

coil (= ado), 175 

cold-moving, 182 

comes off well, 160 

comfortable, 213 

composture, 212 

con thanks, 211 

conceit (= idea), 221 

conceived to scope, 163 

conceptions, 203 

condition (= art ?), 163 

conditions (= vocations), 
202 

confectionary, 206 

confounding, 209 

confounding contraries, 
194 

confusion (= destruc- 

tion), 208, 222 

conjured (accent), 159 

continuate, 159 

contempt (personal), 195 

convert (intransitive), 194 

2 33 



Corinth (= brothel), 178 
couched, 180 
counterfeit, 214 
courage (= heart), 186 
crisp, 203 

cross (play upon), 174 
crowned (= dignified), 18 r 
cunning, 221 
curiosity, 207 

dangerous, 213 
date-broke, 177 
dear (intensive), 209, 218 
dedicated beggar to the 

air, 195 
deed of saying, 214 
defiled (play upon ?), 174 
deny 't, 197 
depart (= part), 169 
deprave (= detract), 173 
detestable (accent), 194 
dich, 171 

direct (accent), 198 
discharged (= paid), 177 
discovery, 214 
diseased perfumes, 204 
dividant, 196 
do thy nature, 199 
doit, 167 

draught (= privy), 215 
drink the free air, 163 
drugs (= drudges), 206 
dying deck, 195 

embossed, 218 

entertain (= employ), 213 

exceptless, 213 

eyeless venomed worm, 

203 
eyes behind you, 174 

fail (noun), 215 
falling-from, 210 
fang (verb), 198 



-34 



Index of Words and Phrases 



•zi-S'.-"--;-, f-s: '.:;:. : : : 
fee ie r = = t f : 1 = . : - : 
fees = -7:; err/ . :;: 
fell (= fallen), 206 
fierce (= excessive) , 196 
figure (= handwriting), 

22 : 
filths (= prostitutes) , 194 
rrs: s "•- ;.:'r.. 7:5 

7. i~:7, 7:7 

71^~::-_5. 75: 7:7 
rkv.kus. if: 

r.e r.::-:zz:. 1-5 
:" 7.7 =:":.: lis'- . :-:. 2:2 
: : : : a::v; : - e - e 2 c . 77^ 
:':: = :e;.= u~= . 77c 
::: ■ _k::le 717:. 75- 

free = kreri- . 7:7 

from (= away from) , 213 

:'::- = :'; : ;r. i~ : - 7 . :-: 



5 .7- V.7. . 



.rri:u. = rlv. 777 
725. 7S2 



7:77 :ke 772.rr.e-. 7:7 
77 : 1 i rakiur. : - .t 
hikes 7 77e7.77.er. 77j. 
honesty (= liberality), 

honour (= lordshu 

7:177:7 = 7.:777re2 . 777 
humour, 194 

hunger.}-. 777 

hu5C2.UC.ry. 7-7 

Hyzer.:-. 77; 

icy precepts of respect, 

7 77 

idle banquet, 174 
like v; 7777;:. 77: 
importunacy (accent), 
177 

1777 irruue S7:e~: . 7-: 

177 2:777:. 7-: 

177 ZzZtZ, 777:. 77; 

-.7 heir:. :-: 
in : u : : : - 7 : : ': : z . 175 
in paper, 175 
mcertain, 205 
iri'er.ei. 2 7.i 
UTUerree. 7:: 
influence, 214 
"ngeniously, 182 

cgrarkuczs. 221 

nscripture, 222 



.5 SSI, 777 



. ee 7 r. — __ . . * ' 5 : : •_ 7 z . 2 _ : 
legs z'.iy u'ciu . :- 5 
level (= straight), 198 

'.twi'.'.ii ~ 2kce. 7:7 
kcerr/ = kker:;-:s777 . 

-;- 

: a babe, 172 

::t:. 2:: 



.- iu ::7e. : :; 



7777 •••. :77e~ CiTierS . 

173 

~2Ce-UC 7i: 

77 7-:t =7: . ::; 
mankind (accent), 194 
many my near occasions, 
191 

77777. = 7 — 275.77 7:5 

77.777: v.' = 5:777r:7 . 777 

marrowy vines, 203 
mast (= acorns), 211 
77 -.:-.7 eyes, :: : 
means, 221 
~eck7.r. 2:: 
meed (= merit), 169 
mere (= absolute) , 209 
mere nature, 204 
merely (= absolutely), 

mettle, 203 

r.-.r.:: 77 = :kv:urke . 21c 
minute-jacks, 192 
klksuruhrir is. 777 
r. : e . 7:7. 7 - 5 . 727 
more kinder, 194 
motives (personal), 221 

777 I 77 77 7^77 7 . 272 

much! (ironical), 172 
multiplying bans, 194 
mysteries .= callings . 
194, 212 

natural (play upon), 214 
I not (transposed), 200 
notes (play upon .7-7 

oathable, 202 

:7k rue. 77: 
objects, 202 

::'::::: ir.tzi:' z.::, 7-5 
offices, 179 

:77 7 ZilZ . 772 

: 7t777.: 27: 

t, 210 

:'.:■■- ±i :'zt zzz'.z. z:± 

7777 = 7e7777 . 777. 27f 

part (= task), 215 

7777::-k77. 272. 227 

parts (= merits), 190 
cesses = exceeds . - : z 
passion, 183 

7 er.i 75 verc . 77k. 
personating, 214 
pill (= pillage), 194 



Index of Words and Phrases 



*3S 



pitched (play upon), 174 
planetary plague, 201 
ports (= gates), 222 
prefer injuries to his 

heart, 189 
present (= immediate), 

163 
presentment, 160 
prized by their masters, 

166 
proof (of armour) , 202 
propagate their states, 163 
properties (verb), 162 
prosperous gods, 217 
protest (= profess), 212 
provokes (= calls forth) , 

159 
push (= pish) , 194 
put thy shirt on warm, 204 

quick (= living), 199 
quillets, 202 
quit, 209 
quittance, 169 

rampired, 222 

ranked with all deserts, 

163 
rated, 178 

record (accent), 159 
remorse (= pity) , 202 
remotion, 208 
render (= confession), 217 
respect (= prudence), 206 
respectively, 182 
resumes no care, 177 
rother, 197 
rotten (= unwholesome) , 

196 
round (= blunt), 177 

sacrificial whisperings, 

163 
salt (= lustful), 201 
sans, 201 

scald such chickens, 178 
scope of justice, 220 
sea of air, 195 
sea of wax, 162 
secure thy heart, 181 



semblable, 198 

sequence of degree, 218 

Servilius, 158 

serving of becks, 175 

set him clear, 186 

set me on the proof, 179 

shall 's, 210 

she (= her), 199 

sights, 167 

sinner (= cause of sin), 

171 
smooth (= flatter), 197 
so (=if), 166 
solidares, 183 
something (adverb), 199 
spilth, 179 
spirits (monosyllable), 

159 

spital-house, 199 
spurring, 202 
square (= just), 222 
starve (= destroy) , 168 
states (= estates), 163, 174 
stint (= check), 223 
strain (= quality), 204 
strain (= race), 168 
strait (= strict), 164 
strange (= stranger), 199 
suspect (noun), 213 
swath, 205 
swell our spirit, 190 

take his haste, 218 

talent, 182 

tapsters, like, 204 

that (= so that), 181, 204 

that (= O that) , 207 

therefore he will be, 164 

thorough (= through), 

213, 217 
though, 208 
time's flies, 192 
tiring (= eagerly intent), 

191 
to (= for) , 178 
to (= in addition to), 190 
to (omitted), 189 
to (= with), 195 
too, 210 
touch the estimate, 159 



touch (= touchstone), 209 
touched (= tested), 185 
toward (= at hand), 191 
towardly, 183 
tract (= track), 162 
traversed arms, 220 
triumphers (accent), 217 
true (= honest), 212 
try (noun), 214 
tub-fast, 201 
tubs and baths, 201 

unaptness, 179 
unbolt (= unfold), 162 
uncharged ports, 222 
unclew me quite, 166 
under (= on the plea of), 

187 
undergo (= undertake), 

189 
under praise, 166 
unmeasurable, 203 
unnoted, 189 
unpeaceable, 169 
unto his honour, 183 
use of quittance, 169 
uses (= necessities), 176 

virtuous, 184 
Vllorxa, 188 
voiced, 201 
votarist, 198 

wakeful couch (" waste- 
full cocke "), 179 
want much of men, 210 
wappened, 198 
wards (= bolts), 187 
wax (= growth), 162 
wears (= wears away). 

158 
wed (= wedded), 199 
which (=who), 176 
whittle (= knife), 217 
who (= which), 218 
whom (=who), 218 
wide sea of wax, 162 
window-bars, 201 
windpipe's notes, 171 
wrack, 217 
wreakful, 204 



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